Drawing My Own Path
by bhuvan21
Summary: Lucy is obsessed with drawing; she always has been since childhood. When her art teacher, Mrs. Strauss sets the class an assignment to create a 20 page manga, she is ecstatic! Having teamed up with Natsu and Erza, they're sure to create something epic. But after the project is finished, bigger opportunities start to open up. What will her father think? All relationships are canon.
1. The Project!

**Hello everybody reading this! I'm really very glad that you managed to stumble across my story! This is my first fan fiction . . . Ever. That said, it's probably will not be the best. The description says it all really, and don't worry, more characters that those 4 are included. Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail!**

My pencil glided across the smooth page, minuscule pieces of graphite staining it grey. Dolphins, dinosaurs, even people lived at home on the page, otherwise know as my maths book.

"Just, a little shadow here," I mumbled to myself, as I worked on my latest doodle. Unbeknownst to me, my math teacher stood over me, frowning deeply as he inspected my "work".

"Lucy Heartfilia! How many times have I told you, absolutely no doodling in class!" my teacher shouted at me. Mr. Strauss, was his name; he was a tall imposing man, who intimidated the whole class, even Natsu. At least, unless he was ranting about being a man, then, he turned into a

complete baby.

"How am I supposed to teach you, if you insist on defying me?" he asked. I shrugged, and tried to look fairly remorseful, but by the look on his face, I had failed.

"Please see me after school Lucy, and bring you exercise books. I will have you work, even if it means giving up my own time."

He said please, but his tone of voice made it clear that it was an order. As he finished speaking, the school bell started to ring, signifying the start of our lunchtime. After packing up my stuff, I quickly headed to the lunch hall. Grabbing a quick sandwich, and thanking the school cook Virgo, having told her that no, I did not have any punishment for her, I dashed to the table where my friends were already eating.

"Hi Lucy!" my friends chorused, before returning to what they had been doing previously. Let me introduce you to my friends. First of all, there's Natsu, one of my oldest childhood friends alongside Gray and Erza. His hair was naturally pink, something he was rather sensitive about. He, is one of those really annoying people, who never studies but still manages to get straight As. Gray, however, has a weird stripping habit which has gotten him nearly suspended on multiple occasions. Erza however, always keeps him in check. Somehow, Erza convinced Principal Makarov, to let her wear a suit of armour, and a skirt? Sometimes I really wonder what goes on in that head of hers. Gajeel and Juvia were both transfer students who joined us just over a year ago, but now, we're all great friends. Levy, I've know since we were babies as our parents are great friends.

Natsu, was somehow, arguing with Gray, whilst conducting a food eating challenge with Gajeel. Erza and Juvia were talking about . . . "love rivals?" while Levy started to talk to me about the latest manga series she had read. Before long, I was deeply engaged in a passionate debate, concerning three of the main characters in this manga series, and potential ships.

As they say, time flies when you're having fun, and before long the school bell rang, and it was time for my favourite class of the day: double art. Natsu, Erza and I all had the same Friday classes, so we kept up a friendly chatter on the way. Art was on the top floor, with Mrs. M. Strauss, a white haired lady, who was too forgiving for her own good.

After climbing the two flights of stairs, we sauntered into our classroom and took our seats. Mrs. Strauss was already there, and she flashed me a smile, but we were still waiting on a few students. Before long, the class started.

"Today students, we are going to be starting a project!" Mrs. Strauss announced.

The hum of chatter filled the air; Mrs. Strauss was know for her exciting projects.

"Class, you will organise yourselves into groups of three in a moment. You will have four weeks to complete your assignment. Which is . . . . . You must create a twenty page manga!"

If the room hadn't been buzzing with talk already, the volume seemed to drastically increase. Everyone was excited with a fun project like this! I turned to Natsu and Erza to find them already looking at me expectantly, big smiles on their faces. Not to brag, but I was easily the best at drawing in the class, and boy did they know it!

Over the chatter of the class, Erza somehow managed to make herself heard, "Okay, the first thing we need to do is to come up with a storyline. Natsu, go get a piece of paper from Mrs. Strauss. We are going to brainstorm some ideas."

"Yes Ma'am!", Natsu replied and dashed over to the teacher.

Natsu placed the paper between us and Erza continued to speak, "I think it goes without saying, that Lucy will do all of the drawing. I will do the dialogue, and I think you, Natsu would be the perfect person to create a storyboard."

"A storyboard being . . . what exactly?", Natsu enquired.

After explaining to Natsu, we got down to work and proceeded to come up with about a dozen ideas or so before the class, and the school day ended. Before we left, Mrs. Strauss reviewed what we had jotted down, and surveying our group told us she thought our project would turn out rather well, indeed. I couldn't have agreed more. With my friends and I working as a team, there was no way our project wouldn't be fantastic.

I bade my friends farewell, before entering Mr. Strauss's classroom. As I expected, there he was sitting at his desk. But as I hadn't expected, he was chatting, almost flirtatiously with Miss. Evergreen, our English teacher. I was about to silently back out of the room and "forget" my detention, when Mr. Strauss spotted me. His eyes widened for a second before he forced them back into place. He made a subtle gesture with had hand, a thumbs up over his shoulder, clearly telling me to get out. My eyes covered one message, "You owe me big time."

I silently crept out of the room and started to make my way home. Levy was just outside the school gate, struggling with a heap of books. I swiftly caught up to her and offered my assistance, carrying half of her load for her. We struck up a casual conversation before Levy stared intensely at my eyes and said, " What are you hiding from me?"

"N-nothing," I stammered, doing my best to pass of my behaviour as normal.

"Look, I've know you since we were babies, I can tell when you're lying. Now spill it!" she commanded. I didn't realise I was _that_ easy to read! Having promised her not to tell anyone, I quickly narrated them events I had just witnessed. Levy's eyes widened before her face broke into a smile.

"Mr. Strauss and Miss. Evergreen! I totally ship it!" Levy laughed, and we resumed to our normal conversation. As we arrived at Levy's house I gave her back her books, and walked the ten more steps to my house. I opened the door, and went straight to my room. After that day at school I was completely drained. I lay down, still in my school attire to talk a little nap. Before I knew it I was asleep.

 **And, that's all for the first chapter. I really hoped you enjoyed this! Please feel free to leave a review Please, please leave a review! As you can see, I need all the help I can get! Also, shoot me a PM if you want, I'd love to talk to any and all of you! I can't promise a quick update, or a regular schedule but I'll do my best! Also, a question for you guys to consider, what should I do with Lucy's parents? Stay tuned, and remember to review! Bye!**


	2. Chapter 2 - The Bookstore!

**Hello everybody, it's me again! I didn't think I would be updating again so soon, but well, I felt like writing again! You can probably expect another update tomorrow. Well, enough chatter, here it is!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail.**

Chapter 2 - The Bookstore!

I awoke drowsily from my slumber, remembering my homework. I groaned internally, and got out my maths book. Quadratic equations. It was gonna' be a long night. Two hours later, and my maths and english were out of the way. Time for my art, to work on the project. I reached into my right hand pocket, and pulled out my phone. I listened carefully to make sure my Dad wasn't home as he hated me using the phone unless I was calling him. What was I thinking? Of course my father wasn't home, he's always away on business trips. I hastily texted Natsu and Erza on a new group chat.

Lucy: Hey guys, skype now for the art homework?

Their responses were quick.

Natsu: Sure thing!

Erza: Of course!

I clicked a few times with my mouse to wake up my computer, and after typing in my password, opened up skype. I accepted the group call message that was already pending, and we started to plan. Erza, being the proactive person she is, had already come up with ten different ideas. Natsu being the . . . Natsu, he is, had done nothing.

"I guess they balance each other out," I thought to myself. We talked together for about an hour and a half, just discussing Erza's idea, before finally settling on one we all liked. It was an original idea Erza had come up with, and was all about magic. However, Erza had decided, to make things easy for me to draw, she had put most of us and our friends in the story! We would have talked more, but Natsu needed to go to bed, and I needed to get some dinner. We all said our goodbyes and left each other, with an uplifting sense of accomplishment.

I went downstairs to the kitchen, to prepare myself some dinner, I was a fine cook if I do say so myself, and ate it hungrily whilst watching some anime in the living room. By the time I was finished, I was starting to get drowsy, and so, like Natsu had earlier, I turned in.

The next day was Saturday, and I awoke blissfully, knowing that I had no school to "look forward to". After eating breakfast, I pondered over my plans for the day. As I got stuck in deep thought, a whistling tune from my phone awoke me. It was Levy.

Levy: Hey Lucy, I was wondering if you wanted to join at that new bookstore that opened at the mall? I'll probably be there all day, so if you're coming, bring money for lunch.

A grin broke across my face, and I quickly messaged her back.

Lucy: Be outside your house in five!

I got dressed for the outing, and, grabbing some money, set off down the road to Levy's house. There she was, waiting for me, early as usual.

"Hey Lucy!" she exclaimed, greeting me excitedly, "You ready to go?"

"Sure!" I replied, and we walked to the nearest bus stop.

"So Lucy," she said as we walked, "Have you been set that art assignment too?"

"Yeah, the manga one?" I asked, which she confirmed with a nod, "I'm hoping to get some material from this bookshop to work on. I'm with Natsu and Erza; it's gonna' be awesome!"

"You guys are lucky," Levy replied, pouting, "I'm stuck with Juvia and metal-face. Half the time Juvia's ogling over Gray, and metal-face's drawing skills really, really suck,"

I stuck her tongue out and laughed playfully, before our topic of discussion moved back onto books. We boarded the local bus, and before long our stop came. We had finally reached the mall.

To those who hadn't visited before, the mall was a massive metal building in an ovular shape. Shops and restaurants lined the outsides of the building, all surrounding a middle circle, where one could eat at the food court. However, to those who had visited before, it was nothing special.

Levy and pushed through the doors to the mall, and we entered. Having reached the elevator, I pushed the button for the third floor, and up we went. As we went, Levy and I started talking about this new bookshop.

"It was opened very recently, wasn't it?" Levy questioned.

"Just about a week ago I think," I confirmed.

As the lift reached our floor, we stepped out and chattered excitedly about all the books we would buy. Still walking, we reached the shop.

"Mr. Yajima's Bookstore" the sign read. The book-filled windows, from head to toe, gave no hint of what was lurking inside. Glancing nervously at each other, we entered.

Inside, was one of the largest book stores I had ever seen! Shelves lined the walls, and divided the room in many tens of different aisles. It was organised beautifully, from A - Z. The walls were painted a dull yellow, and the whole room gave of a homely, cosy aura. Best of all, the shop seemed deserted (apart from the cashier), and free for just us! Levy almost squealed in delight. We immediately dived in, and before long, we each had a stack of books to purchase. I had collected up a number of new best-sellers, as well as an edition of a new manga, not only as reference art for the style of manga, but to read myself. Levy's pile looked very much the same. We made our way to the back of the store, where there was a small desk, behind which, a small, old man sat, engrossed in his crossword puzzle. The man didn't seem to realise we were here, so I gently tapped him on the shoulder. The man looked up at us and his face broke out into a smile.

"Hello there," he croaked gently, "My name is Mr. Yajima, the owner of this book store. I recently moved here a week ago, so you may not have seen me around before. It's really quite heartening to see such young reading enthusiasts,"

He started to scan our items, mumbling to us all the while, complimenting our choice of books. Before long, he got to the bottom of out piles: the manga.

"How interesting," he wheezed, "It's not often someone buys these books. I was actually thinking of taking them off the shelves, but if you like them, I'm sure it'll be fine to keep them. May I ask why you want them?"

Levy and I both explained the details of our project to him, and he nodded in understanding. Handing us both out books in plastic bags, we paid him and left the store.

"That was lovely, wasn't it?" Levy said, "And that man, Mr. Yajima seems quite nice too,"

I nodded in agreement, as my stomach started to rumble. I checked the time on my watch.

"Three in the afternoon! We were in there for over five hours!" I exclaimed.

"No wonder I'm so hungry," I thought to myself.

"We'd better get some food," Levy suggested as she motioned to the nearby food court.

My stomach agreed.

 **Bit of a sharp ending there, but I have homework :( Sorry if this chapter is a bit uneventful, but I feel that you can't just speed up a story unnaturally. Mr Yajima will also play a fairly key role in this story, so it wasn't all for nothing. Sadly, this experience was based of a real incident. Thanks you so much to: Natvia/Nat for following and favouriting and Delia 365 for following as well. Just seeing that some people, even just two people, have consciously decided that they would like to continue reading my work is extremely inspiring, and make me want to write more. If you are enjoying the story so far, consider favouriting and/or following and please, please review, even it is just a few quick words of encouragement, it really helps! If you aren't enjoying/didn't enjoy this too much, please review, and tell me why you disliked it. It really helps me A LOT. Thank you for reading!**

 **P.S: You can expect an update on Saturday (tomorrow) and a double (if not triple) update on Thursday.**

 **P.P.S: Feel free to leave a review just to inform me of a typo if you find one; it's very helpful!**

 **Bye! See y'all soon!**


	3. The Pyro, The Knight and The Star!

**Hello everyone! I'm back! Upon waking up this morning, I got up, ran to the computer, to check my story stats. 8 Followers and 4 favourites! In comparison to some other writers, it may seem like a minuscule amount, but it really makes my infinitely happy to see people enjoying what I have written. That said, I don't want to treat each one of you as just another number, 'cause you're all people, who have taken the time to read my work, so I' gonna' take the time to thank each of you in the A/N at the bottom. For now, here's the next chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: I still don't own fairy tail.**

Levy ordered us some salads, not the most filling, but good enough until I get home. After we finished eating, we started to head for the elevator, that would bring us to the ground floor when we heard an excited shouting. Seeing, that it was coming from our right, we peered anxiously through the crowd, things someone had had an accident. However, instead of an injured shop-goer, we were met by an excited Natsu, followed by a not so excited Gray.

"Shut it flame-brain, I think they can see you now!" he commanded. Natsu shot Gray a murderous look before grinning at us happily.

"What are you guys doing here?" he inquired.

We told him about our visit to the bookshop, and the Natsu told us about his visit . . to the food court . . all morning.

"In any case, I need to get home to study, exams are around the corner!" he said, blinking shiftily.

"Yeah right," I said, as Levy started to giggle, "I bet a new episode of that TV show you're obsessed with came out, right?"

"Uhh, yeah," Natsu admitted sheepishly, "See, ya!"

And with that, he left.

"Wait up Natsu!" shouted Gray as he ran at full pelt after him.

Levy and I started to laugh, "Those two will never change will they," she sighed.

Levy and I continued our friendly chatter, all the way home, and before long, I was saying goodbye. I took out my keys from my pocket, opened my door and went inside. I was greeted by an eerie silence.

"I guess Dad's still not home," I thought to myself with a sigh. Checking my watch, and seeing that the time was a quarter to four, I decided that I might as well do some studying. Unlike Natsu, I did actually want to pass our exams. I sat at my desk, out came my textbooks, and the studying began. (Don't worry, I'll skip over it)

After four hours of hard work, I decided to take the rest of the evening off. It was eight o'clock and the night was still young. After making myself a quick bowl of noodles, I snuggled up on the couch, covered myself in pillows, and switched on the TV. After a few minutes, I was immersed in the world of anime, and would continue to be until I fell asleep.

I woke to the loud beeping of my phone alarm, and unthinkingly, as I was still drowsy for sleep, slapped the phone, in the hopes that it would just shut up. Unfortunately, it didn't. At least it woke me up. Sitting up straight, I blinked a few times, trying to get my surroundings, before realising I was still on the couch I had been in all night. Now that I was more awake than earlier, I possessed the coordination to turn off my alarm and get up. Stretching out my muscles and letting out a colossal yawn, I deemed myself ready for the day. But what to do, was the question. I could do some more studying, and stay at home all day, or I could text Erza and Natsu and see if they wanted to work on the project.

"Sure, why not?" I thought to myself, and promptly texted them on out group chat, whose name someone (Natsu) had changed to "SUPER EPIC MANGA PROJECT GROUP" followed by half-a-dozen different smiley face emojis.

Lucy: Hey guys, wondering if you're free to work on the project today?

Natsu: I've got nothing planned today.

Erza: Sounds good.

Lucy: Why don't we all meet at my place?

Natsu: Sure, be there soon.

Erza: I'll be there soon as well.

Lucy: Great!

I started to clean up the living room, where we'd be working, and after making it vaguely habitable, I brought down some of my art supplies, as well as a few sheets of paper. While I was waiting, I unconsciously started to doodle, drawing animated versions of myself, Natsu and Erza. Just as I added the finishing touches to my "masterpiece", I heard a rapid double knock on the door in quick succession, as well as the doorbell ringing over and over again. It seemed that both Natsu and Erza are here. I dashed down the corridor to the door and quickly let them in. Erza, had brought, a suitcase full of . . . pencils?

"No matter," I thought to myself, "I guess we won't have to sharpen any pencils,"

Natsu sauntered in, with Erza following behind. I led them to the living room, where there were three couches arranged around a coffee table, on which we could work. Although I had known both Natsu and Erza, since I was a child, somehow, they had still never been to my house.

"Woah," drooled Natsu, upon seeing the large fridge situated in the kitchen. He immediately proclaimed that this was the best house he had ever seen!

"I too, admire the architecture of the house," Erza commented, before we sat down, facing each other. Natsu caught sight of the drawing of the three of us that I had just completed, and gasped.

"It's amazing!" he shouted, "Although I do wish you hadn't made me a pyro, it just gives Gray more things to tease me about,"

"Just wait 'till you see what I've got planned for Gray!" I replied mischievously, a grin forming on my face as a plan formulated in my mind.

We worked on our base ideas for the story the whole day. By the end of the day, I had drawn base art for all the main characters: Natsu the pyromaniac, Erza the calm armoured mage, Lucy the celestial key holder, and so on. We had decided to include most of the people we knew at school, Gajeel, Levy, Juvia and Gray to name a few. And, most importantly, we had finally come up with a name for our manga: "Fairy Tail".

It took all day, but we are finally on the road to creating a great project. We had our characters, a loose idea of the plot, and a burning inspiration in our hearts (I hope this isn't too cheesy).

Sending Natsu and Erza home, I collapsed on the couch. It had been a long day.

 **I really have to stop ending with sleep don't I . . . . . .**

 **Well, there you have it, another chapter, and more work on this art project! Don't worry though, this project is just the start of something big . . . . Enough hints for now, it's time to say some thank you's.**

 **Thank you to: Apple Of Eris for your favourite, follow and kind words in your review!**

 **FlamingB1rd, In my dreams 0220, Nat/Natvia for both favouriting and following!**

 **AnnieMey777, Court818, Delia365 and animelove16 for following my story!**

 **I hope I don't let you all down! I probably won't again today, maybe another tomorrow (my birthday!) , and a definite triple/double on Thursday for making you all wait! After that, you can expect a steady, maybe daily, stream of updates. Again, thank you all so much for reading, please consider favouriting and please, please leave a review! See all of you in the next chapter! Bye!**

 **P.S: I'm thinking of making a story art/cover thing. Any ideas? Please review/PM me!**


	4. The First of Many

**Hello everybody! Back with another chapter, and it's my birthday! And, please leave me a review as a present . . . . please? In all seriousness, please do leave a review as it really helps me to boost my writing skills. Enough talk though, here's the chapter!**

 **P.S: I am starting from when Lucy wakes up.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail.**

Chapter 4 - Real Art

Blinking rapidly, I sat up from the couch to the sound of my alarm as usual. I took a few minutes to adjust to my surroundings, before realising that I had school today. And art class. Meaning that I had to take all of the stuff we worked on yesterday to school. I sighed, before forcing myself out of the comfy couch, and starting to pack up all of our group's papers. Before long, I had collected them all in a stack, and shoved them into my school bag. Seeing the time on my watch, I grabbed a quick breakfast of cereal, and headed to school. Normally, Levy waited for me outside her house, but she wasn't there.

"I must be late," I thought to myself nervously. My first class of the day was art, and I didn't want to miss any time working on the project. I willed my bus to come quicker, but, obviously, it didn't work. By the time I got to school I had missed around fifteen minutes of art.

"Erza's gonna' kill me," I thought as I rushed through the corridors, trying to get to my art class.

When I got to the door, I knocked and entered, apologising profusely for being late, blaming it on the traffic. Being the light-hearted teacher she was, Mrs. Strauss just smiled sympathetically and motioned for me to sit with the rest of my group. Erza did not look happy.

"Why the blithering blazes were you late!" Erza shouted, staring at me intensely, so much so that I wished I could just disappear into the ground.

"Traffic?" I replied, hoping she would believe me.

Erza's voice lowered, "Don't you play games with me. This project must be FANTASTIC! If we do not get an A+* I'm blaming it all on you,"

"But - th - there's not such thing as a - "

"No buts Lucy, now, let's get on with the project,"

Suddenly, she was all smiles again. Natsu had been laughing the whole while, but as Erza turned to look at him, he suddenly cleared his face of all emotion.

"I hope you at least remembered to bring all of the work we did last night," Erza said.

I sighed in relief; I actually had them.

"Yup!" I smiled, and brought them out of my bag. I spread them out on the table, so we could all see them, and Erza started to talk.

"Okay, let us review the whole storyboard again. At least what we've done so far. Natsu?"

Natsu, grinning, pulled out the storyboard he had been working yesterday.

"So, at the beginning here's Lucy, and she's tryin' to get in that guild Fairy Tail, when suddenly this bad guy kidnaps her, and then BAMMM! There's an epic explosion, and then Natsu comes in and he's really epic, and so he saves her and they join Fairy Tail and then they go on epic adventures and get rich and it's really awesome!" Natsu replied, speaking at a phenomenally fast pace, his hand flying all over trying to convey the "epicness" of the situation. Erza and I looked at each other.

"Well, the story isn't bad," I ventured, "I just think we need less "epicness" and "BAMMM!"s, and more story,"

"I agree with Lucy," Erza nodded, "I think I shall help you clear this up, and by the end of this lesson, we should be finished. Lucy, why don't you started doing rough sketches of some of the main scenes, like the one where you're walking, or where you're talking, or -"

"Where you're buying Natsu a massive lunch to thanks him!" Natsu interrupted.

"Yes, or . . that," Erza said.

Then, she turned to face Natsu, and the two of them started to redraft the storyboard. All of Natsu's previous cheek completely evaporated into thin air, as soon as Erza started to glare at him, steel in her eyes.

Meanwhile, I started to draw myself walking down an empty street. I started first with a fairly humanoid outline, drawing each widening and thinning of my bone structure. After I had a shape that looked like a walking mannequin. I placed another piece of paper over my outline. This way, I could still see my outline faintly, and the final drawing wouldn't look too scratchy. This time, I took more time, and used more precision. I beefed out the skeleton and adapted it to my form. Finally, I added my clothes and accessories. I decided to draw myself with my usual blue and white, sleeveless jacket, as well as my blue skirt. I gave myself some stylish brown boots and added my ring of celestial keys. All that was left was the shading. I glanced up at the clock. Still ten minutes left.

"I should be able to finish this drawing," I thought to myself, as I started to image how the light would fall on my skin and clothes. After adding the shadows and highlights, my picture was done.

"What do you think?" I enquired, showing the drawing to my group, taking care not to fold the paper.

"It's epic!" Natsu exclaimed.

"It is indeed perfect," Erza proclaimed, "In fact, we might just use that drawing for the real edition. All you need to do is scan it, and go over it with a solid black brush in photoshop. You still have that drawing tablet from your birthday, don't you?"

I nodded.

"Then, go ahead and do it tonight. Natsu and I are going to try to work on this storyboard tonight, and finalise it. Unfortunately, we weren't able to finish it this lesson, because someone, kept writing "EPIC!" all over the scenes, but don't worry, it'll be done by tomorrow!"

I nodded again, and we started to pack away, anticipating the loud ringing of the bell.

I carefully slipped the drawing into a plastic folder.

It was my first piece of real art, and I would treasure it forever.

 **And there you have it, the fourth chapter in this fan fiction and the project is really starting to take off! Sorry if it's a bit short but I have promised you all a double/triple update on Thursday! Thank you for reading this chapter; as always, if you thought that it was EPIC! then, consider favouriting, and whether you enjoyed this or not, please do review my work! I would greatly appreciate it. Also, I should be able to make a cover / story art on Thursday, so please do PM/review me if you have any ideas! Bye for now and I'll see you all in the next episode! Wait, this is a story. In the next chapter!**

 **P.S: Next chapter will be on Thursday (there will be two or three) and afterwards I should be able to get them to you almost daily! Maybe not on weekends though (ironically).**


	5. Digital Drawing!

**Hello everybody! It feels good to be back in my comfy chair writing another chapter for you guys! Expect at least another chapter today, if not two! Again, I have some more thanks you's to say, which will be in the A/N at the bottom! Exams are finally over (yes I made the smart decision to start writing a fan fiction just before the exams) and I'm in a writing mood! Here ya' go!**

 **Disclaimer: (You know the drill) I don't own Fairy Tail.**

The rest of the day passed quickly. Science was just watching an "informative documentary" about antagonistic muscle pairs and all that stuff and their application in running (with Mr. Jet), history was actually pretty interesting; Mrs. Vermillion is the best history teacher! The last period of the day was maths. As usual, Mr. Strauss droned on, and on about algebra, while I continued to doodle. For some reason, he didn't seem to notice . . . All the better for me, I guess.

Before long, maths had ended, as the bell rang and we started streaming out of the classroom. Natsu was first out the door, as usual, followed by the ever punctual Erza. I was just leaving, as Mr. Strauss called out to me.

"Lucy! Lucy! Please stay behind just for a minute,"

Seeing the annoyed expression on my face, he added, "Don't worry, it won't take long,"

My friends looked expectantly at me from just outside the classroom.

"It's cool," I said, "I'll just be a minute, I'll catch up,"

Sighing internally, I turned round to face him.

"Lucy, I know you saw me and Mrs. Evergreen . . . chatting the other day," he stated calmly, before effectively turning into a little child, "Please don't tell anyone, or she'll be really mad, I swear, I'll let you doodle in class all you want, and your detention can be - "

"It's fine," I said, cutting him off, "Really it's alright, I won't tell anyone,"

"Thank you so much Lucy!" he said, his face brightening up, "The way you handled that situation . . . . . was SO MANLY!"

I started to giggle, before exiting the room. Sometimes I found it hard to believe that he was actually an adult.

"Hey, guys! Wait up!" I shouted, jogging up to them from behind. They stopped for a moment, allowing me to catch up, before continuing at the same pace.

"What was that about?" asked Natsu.

"Uhhh, nothing. Just need to . . . uh, do like some stuff, ya' know?"

"Sure," he said, oblivious to my obvious lie. Only on Natsu would that have worked.

"Remember to do that drawing tonight," Erza said, "Natsu and I will finish the storyboard.

"Ooh!," exclaimed Levy, "I completely forgot about that! I'll probably do some work on the project tonight too. How's your project coming along?"

"It's Epic!"

"Pretty well,"

"It is at a satisfactory standard,"

"I see," said Levy, before changing the subject. We chatted for a while, and soon, we had reached out street. Natsu and Erza had to keep walking to reach Erza's house, so we said goodbye, before I opened my door. Still no Dad.

I went to my room immediately, dumping my backpack on my bed and letting out a sigh of relief. At least there wasn't too much homework, just art, and English. Saving the best for last, I got out my English exercise book, and started to write.

One strenuous hour later, I was finished. I stretched my aching limbs and let out an almighty yawn, before getting to my feet. I needed to go find my drawing tablet. I started to think of where I had seen it last, I realised it was under my bed. Sure enough, there it was, the box still unopened. I carefully dragged it out from its hiding spot and placed it on my desk. Slicing through the sellotape, I gazed at the box's contents. There was the sleek tablet, complete with a pen and its holder. I ran my fingers over its surface, feeling the cool hard plastic. A smile started to spread across my face, as I gingerly extracted it and placed it onto my desk. Having connected it up with the cord that came with it, I installed the appropriate drivers, before reaching for the pen. I gripped it tightly in my right hand, and touched it to the pad.

Nothing happened.

I touched it again. Still nothing. A feeling of panic started to wash over me and I frantically waved the pen over the pad. This time, I got a reaction. But not the one I wanted. The bottom of the pen unscrewed itself and flew off of the main body, landing on the floor. Shocked, I picked it up, hoping I hadn't broken it. Then the realisation dawned on me. I had forgotten to put the battery into the pen.

A quick dash downstairs fixed that problem and before long, the tablet was working.

"Yesssss," I hissed quietly, before going to the top floor. This was my father's study, where the scanner was. I technically wasn't allowed to enter this room, but, my father would never know. Clutching the plastic wallet tightly, I pulled out my drawing and carefully placed it onto the scanner, face down. I adjusted the settings on the scanner to make my image a little smaller, before choosing my laptop as the desired computer to send the file to. A quick press of a button and the machine started up, whirring to life. A light turned on and after a few seconds, it was done. I rushed downstairs, eager to see the results, completely forgetting about my actual drawing, leaving it still in the scanner.

The scan was perfect. I opened the image up in photoshop and started to draw over the outline with a solid black brush. Next came the colouring phase, and then the highlights and shadows. Finally, I sent the file over to Erza via skype and promptly called her.

"Lucy this is brilliant!" exclaimed Erza, "This is perfect for page two, column three, picture five!"

Seeing the puzzled look on my face, she elaborated, "Natsu just left, but I still have the storyboard. Do you have a couple of minutes?" Those couple of minutes turned into a full hour of Erza and I conversing animatedly. Nothing on the storyboard ended up getting changed, but I now had an excellent idea of what I had to do next. I bid Erza farewell, and hung up on our call. Glancing at the clock, I saw the time. I needed to go downstairs to prepare some dinner. I went to the kitchen and opened the fridge. Surveying my options, I picked out some spaghetti, my Mom's favourite. It had been so long since I had thought of her. At least I wasn't reduced to tears this time.

And, there you go, bit of a sad ending, but the next chapter should be pretty happy! You can expect it in the next few hours! Now, I have some thank you's to do!

Thank you to: Capricorn Aquarius FOZ, Kawaii -Turtles and SerinaBeauty for you follows and favourites!

Deathblow88 for your kind review and follow + favourite!

FlamingB1rd, again for you review!

And thank you to all of you for reading. Whether you leave a favourite, follow or review, or even just read, I vastly appreciate your support. Good News! 349 people have read this story! Wow! That's a lot! Like a loooooooot! (to me)

In any case, I'll see you all in the next chapter!

 **P.S: If I have forgotten to thank anyone, please PM me and I will do so in the next chapter. I'm fairly sure I have so I profusely apologise in advance.**

 **P.P.S: I am gonna' be making some cover art today, any suggestions?**

 **P.P.P.S: Also, remember to review, favourite and follow if you want!**


	6. Sabotage!

**Hello! I'm not gonna drone on for too long 'cause I feel like I did that a lot in the last chapter.**

 **P.S: I'm writing this back to back to the previous chapter so I may not include the new thanks you's that I may have to say which will be in the next chapter (which I think will be out tomorrow).**

 **I've droned on again haven't I. Oh well. Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: You get the point now don't you?**

I snapped myself out of my coma of sadness. Now was not the time to be thinking about her; I know she wouldn't want me to. I shook my head vigorously, and continued to prepare my meal. After eating it, I turned in early. I was both mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted.

The next few days passed quickly. History, maths, geography, science, they all blurred together in my mind. They only subject that was always stood out was art. Soon enough, art class came around again. A/N:(Yeah - I skipped the boring stuff - you probably wouldn't read it, I wouldn't like to write it)

Over the week, Erza, Natsu and I had worked tirelessly to keep up to date on the project. It had been two weeks since we were assigned it, and I had created finalised drawings of just under a quarter of the pictures needed. Erza and Natsu had created a storyboard for all twenty pages. Erza and Natsu had become my "Drawing Assistants" and we skyped almost everyday to discuss the project. Even Natsu had become adequately productive! This art lesson, I was working on the latest set of drawings. They were from a fight scene, between Erza and Natsu, Natsu leaping up into the air, yelling defiantly, Erza standing her ground, beckoning to him; the more work I did, the closer I felt to my friends. We had added in Levy, a bookworm by request, Gajeel as an iron "dragon slayer" and Juvia as a water woman. I had even let them decide their appearances, although I could pretty much predict what they were going to say.

As the bell rang, I fumbled with my latest drawing and opened my bag to put it into my trusty plastic wallet. I couldn't seem to find it, so I started to take things out. It was in there somewhere, wasn't it? I continued to search, my motions becoming more and more frantic and panicked until I reached the bottom of my bag. It was gone. There had been over twenty different drawings in there, none of them digitally saved yet. That was two weeks of hard work down the drain, just because I was clumsy. I tried to calm myself down, maybe I had left it at home, or maybe Erza accidentally stole it, or Natsu was pulling a prank. I took deep breaths fighting back tears. I wouldn't let this get the best of me. It was bound to be somewhere. I did my best to return the smile Mrs. Strauss was giving me upon exiting, before continuing to think.

"Awwwww, unlucky Lucy," said a foreign voice in a mocking, sarcastic tone, "Seems like you've lost your work?"

I looked up at the face before me, jet black hair, and an expensive fur coat; it was Minerva.

"Well, that's a shame, I guess we'll be getting the top grade this time," Minerva sneered.

Although I was boiling with rage inside, I managed to appear collected.

"I doubt it," I retorted, "You have about as much talent as a dead cow!"

Minerva laughed and said, "Well at least a dead cow is useful for something. Unlike someone else I could think of,"

Her friends started to laugh annoyingly, and before I could think of a witty comeback, she turned and marched out, her cronies following suit, leaving me absolutely _livid_.

"I'd better tell Natsu and Erza," I thought to myself, having calmed myself down.

Taking deep breaths, and counting internally, I went to lunch, where I would be able to find them. Sure enough, there they were, sitting with the others. I grabbed a salad, and sat down next to them.

"Natsu, Erza," I said, the others looking at me intently, "We've been sabotaged,"

"By who?" Natsu asked, a look of fury overtaking his face.

"By Minerva. She's taken all of the drawings," I replied.

"That witch! I knew she was up to no good!" said Levy, unexpectedly loudly.

"I'M GONNA GO FIND HER! AND KICK HER - " yelled Natsu, jumping up and down on his chair.

"Language!" interrupted an irate Erza, "Although I agree she needs to be taught a lesson, our first priority is to get the drawings back. I suggest, we break into her locker, after school and retrieve them. But, as Natsu suggested, we need revenge"

A glint of steel appeared in her eyes, "We shall

"But how?" I asked in unison with the now, more calmed down Natsu.

"Leave it to me," said Gajeel, his eyes alight with an evil smile.

 **Oooh! Minerva has been introduced and a bit of drama is gonna' take place next chapter!**

 **Sorry for the shorter chapter guys, I just felt that this would be a good place to end. Another chapter will be out tomorrow, where I will do the other thank you's. Remember to review, favourite and follow!**

 **P.S: Remember to PM me any ideas . . . for cover art!**

 **P.P.S: I have a new idea for another fanfic which I might write at some point.**


	7. The Heist!

**Hello everybody! I'm back with another chapter. This one's a little longer as the previous was a bit shorter. Thank you's are at the bottom! Enjoy! :)**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail. Again. Again. Again.**

That day, after school, we went home with Gajeel. We walked through unfamiliar streets and many dark alleys before we reached his house. Gajeel unlocked the door with a iron key, and let us in. Erza, Natsu and I followed him upstairs to his room. The house seemed deserted; I wonder where his family was? Upon entering his room I gasped in shock. Erza and Natsu pushed past me to see why I had stopped before realising why.

Every wall in Gajeel's room was covered in metal. Miniature statues, weapons, but most importantly keys. Each one glistened in the sunlight, as Gajeel grinned at our expressions.

"Well, you guys gonna' stop gawking like idiots and come over here?" he asked.

"Uh, of course," replied Erza, snapping out of her dazed moment. We crowded round Gajeel,

seeing what he had started to do.

"Jeez, I knew you were crazy, but not this crazy!" exclaimed Natsu, receiving a threatening look from Gajeel.

"The lockers at school use key-operated multi-point locking systems, so I'm gonna need to make a skeleton key,"

"A skeleton key?" I asked questioningly.

"It'll open any locker in the school," Gajeel replied, "Now, would ya' pass me that hammer?"

About half an hour later, the "skeleton key" was done. It looked like a regular key, but according to Gajeel, it was anything but. We waved goodbye to Gajeel, thanking him, and departed from his house. As we walked back to our respective houses, we started to review the plan.

"Okay," said Erza, "Remember the plan. Tomorrow, at lunch, we need a way to slow Minerva down at lunch, while one of us gets the drawings back. Natsu, and I will cause a diversion. Natsu, you will accidentally drop your plate in the middle of lunch hall. While Minerva is staring at you and is distracted, I, will, again accidentally, spill some food on her fur coat. While she is lecturing me, I will give you the go signal, Lucy. You should have more than enough time to get into her locker with the key. Remember to wear the walkie-talkies I bought us,"

"Yeah, about that," I interrupted, "This is gonna' be hard enough, I don't think we need to recreate mission impossible as well,"

"Nonsense!" exclaimed Erza, "We'll need to have a way of communicating to each other,"

Erza stopped to fish some paper out of her bag.

"Now," she said, giving a copy of the sheet to each of us, "I suggest that you study these tonight, given that we have no homework. You'll need to memorise each command if we want this mission to be a success,"

I started to read through the page: "Operation KaBoom = Natsu dropping plate, Operation Dive Bomb = Erza spilling food" and so on. There were roughly twenty different "code - words" to learn. I started to open my mouth to protest, before closing it. There was no way I would be able to talk Erza out this crazy idea. Especially not with Natsu on her side.

"Wooooow! This is soooo cool! I've always wanted to be in a movie! Can I be Tom Hanks?! I'm gonna' be Tom Hanks! Yeah, this is gonna' be great!" yelled Natsu.

Before I could start to explain to him, that we weren't actually in a movie, he waved goodbye and dashed down his street. Erza and I continued along in a comfortable companionable silence, before we reached my house and I bid farewell to Erza.

The next day, I came into school early, having eaten a large breakfast of two omelettes. I

wasn't going to be able to have lunch with the arrangements we had made, so this way, I

wouldn't get hungry. I met Erza and Natsu at the school gates.

"Alright, is everybody clear on the plan?" Erza asked.

"Aye Scarlet!" replied Natsu (A/N: Scarlet is the code-name Erza has given herself)

"Yeah, I guess," I responded. Although I didn't seem excited, I was exploding inside. Time to teach that Minerva a lesson.

"Class dismissed!" called Mr. Strauss.

"Lucy!" my heart sank, "Please stay behind for a minute,"

"Sir, I really need to go, I have a -"

"Don't worry, it'll only take a minute,"

"Please sir, I really need to go,"

"Lucy, stay here," commanded Mr. Strauss, "I'm sure you lunch is going anywhere,"

I didn't want to have to do this but, I was desperate and whilst my lunch wasn't moving, Minerva most definitely was, "Sir, with all due respect, you wouldn't want anything about Miss. Evergreen getting out?"

"Uhh, well, you know, I guess I'll speak to you next lesson," Mr. Strauss said, ushering me out of the classroom and walking away, mumbling about my MANLINESS.

I wiped some sweat from my forehead, before switching on my walkie-talkie.

"Okay, Erz - Scarlet, is what I meant to say, I am out of class, and ready for the operation," I said.

"Okay, Star, what's your status?" asked Erza

"Well, I'm currently in the . . . large cheesecake corridor?" I responded, reading off of my sheet.

"Good, good. We are currently up to date in phase one. Dragon, what's your status?" she continued.

"I've got my food, and I'm waiting for Minerva to come, before I stop dumping cheese on my bacon," said Natsu excitedly.

"Okay, roger that!" replied Erza.

"She was really taking this thing seriously," I thought to myself.

"Okay, I'm at the target's locker," I said, "Prepare for the start of . . Operation: Extraction!"

"Dragon, I see that the target has entered the room, and has grabbed her sandwich. Start operation KaBoom at the east side of the room immediately!"

"Roger that Ma'am!" said Natsu, starting to enjoy this, "I'm closing in on the target space, closer, and closer, and -"

A loud crash was heard in the background before Natsu continued to speak, "Operation: KaBoom complete!"

"It's working perfectly! She's completely distracted! I'm starting Operation: Dive Bomb; Lucy what's your status?" said Erza.

Jamming the key into the locker and twisting it rapidly, I heard the click of the lock, and the door swung open, "The target's locker is open; I have started to search for the treasure chest!"

"Target is about to move, it's now or never!" Erza said.

In the background I can hear the footsteps of Erza, getting closer before a loud bang and an annoyed scream.

"You idiot! You've wrecked my new fur coat!" screamed Minerva at Erza, "I'm going back to my locker right this minute and changing out of this disgusting, food-covered garment,"

And with that, she started towards the door of the lunch room.

"Code red, code red!" shouted Erza, "Operation Dive Bomb was a failure, the target is now approaching the locker! I suggest an immediate withdrawal to minimise casualties!"

"Erza, I've gotta' find it! We can't pull the same tricks twice!" I replied.

My hands were a blur, frantically searching through the dump pile that was her locker. I was starting to hear footsteps, Minerva had to be around the corner. A silent hush fell over the walk-talkie system, both of my comrades waiting tensely.

"Ah hah!" I exclaimed, finally finding the stolen drownings, "I've got it!"

"Quickly, escape!" said Erza, "If you're caught, then all of our work will have been for nothing! She could frame you, and even considering the circumstances, breaking into another pupil's locker is a punishable offence!"

I pulled out the drawings, stuffed them into my bag, before fumbling with the key. The footsteps grew louder. I jammed the key into the lock and twisted it as hard as I could, before quickly jumping away from the locker. Just in time too, as my feet reached the ground, Minerva turned the corner and caught sight of me.

"Oh, hello Lucy," she said calmly, trying to ignore my muffled laughs at her appearance, "Scram!"

"Yes Ma'am!" I said, all too happy to get out of her sight, and ran down the corridor the lunch room.

I approached Natsu and Erza, and seeing the expectant looks on their faces, I started to speak, "Guys, I hate to say it but . . . . I got them!"

Seeing the looks on their face was priceless.

"Serves them right for messing with us!" yelled Natsu, "High five!"

We slapped our hands together, basking in the glory of our victory.

 **There you go! The heist was successful! This was incredibly fun to write, so I hope it's fun to read!**

 **Thank you to:**

 **Hsdust**

 **SingingAngle327**

 **Whatislifrgurl**

 **catchthecat**

 **and**

 **Serina Beauty**

 **for all of your favourites, follows and kind reviews!**

 **Special Thanks to DeathBlow88 for telling me that my chapter 7 was in code. Not sure how that happened, but it should be fixed now.**

 **I cannot say exactly when the next chapter will be out, but it should be fairly soon - maybe tomorrow, maybe not. Please review, favourite and follow (if you want) and I'll see you all in the next chapter.**

 **P.S: I forgot to do the cover art. That will happen. Some day.**

 **P.P.S: We hit 10 follows + 10 favourites and we're almost at 500 views! Thanks a lot everyone!**


	8. Sleepover!

**Hello everybody! I didn't think that I'd be able to update so soon, but here I am with another chapter! Hope you enjoy it!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.**

 **P.S: I feel like I might be pacing things too fast with the mini time skip, so I decided to do a nice, fun, sunshine and rainbows chapter. Bit of contrast as opposed to the earlier one.**

 **Please enjoy, and maybe leave a review, favourite or follow (if you feel like it)!**

To celebrate our epic victory, Erza had invited all our friends over to her house for a sleepover. Levy, Gajeel, Juvia, Gray (A/N:I'd almost forgotten about him), Natsu, Erza and I were all gonna' meet up at Erza's place in twenty minutes.

I packed up my bag, and reviewed the things I'd need for the umpteenth time.

"Sleeping bag, toothbrush, toothpaste and a pillow, that's all, right?" I mumbled to myself.

Satisfied, for the moment, I slung my bag over my shoulder, before exiting the house. Waiting for me on the pavement was Levy, as we had arranged.

"Come on Lucy!" she called, "We'd better not be late - it is Erza we're talking about!"

"Alright, let's go!" I replied, locking my door before starting down the pavement.

I pulled up the directions Erza had sent me on my phone and showed them to Levy.

"Ah, I see," she said, "So we just need to follow the road for a while, and take the first right. Then we look for number seventy-seven,"

As we walked we started to chat, and it wasn't long before Levy asked me about what Erza had started calling "The Heist!"

"Well," I started to explain, "Actually, why don't I tell you all when we get to Erza's place?"

"Awwww," sighed Levy, "Fine,"

The topic of discussion turned to anime, and before we knew it, we had reached Erza's house. Scary didn't even begin to describe it. Polished metal spikes spread throughout the house's exterior, two towers on either side, each made of grey stone bricks. It was essentially a miniature castle.

"Jeez," I muttered to myself, dumbstruck, "And to think I thought Gajeel was weird,"

Warily, we approached the doorstep, having to climb up a few stairs to do so. I carefully pressed the doorbell, making sure not to impale my hand, on the spiky ring around the button. Both Levy and I waited expectantly as we started to hear footsteps growing louder. Finally, the door opened, revealing Erza in a . . . cat costume?

"Errrr, did we come too early?" I asked, shocked at the informality, and weirdness of Erza's outfit.

"Nope! You're the last to arrive! Come on in!" she said excitedly, ushering us into the reception room. I was really, surprised at how casual Erza was being. Compared to her usual self, she was a completely different person. Before I had time to dwell on that thought, Levy nudged my shoulder.

"Look," she said softly.

Finally, I noticed my surroundings and gasped. A hallway . . . full of armour?

"Erza, what is all this?" I asked, as I came to my senses, snapping out of my daze.

"It's all my armour!" she said, as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

"Yeah, but why?" I replied impatiently.

"Uhh, well, you see, I kinda', sorta' . . . I HAVE A PROBLEM OKAY!" she snapped, before returning to her nice self.

"Now, please follow me to the lounge," she said.

Levy and I, not really knowing what to say, followed her tentatively, taking great care to stay away from her suits of armour. Some of them looked fairly normal, but others just left me speechless.

"Here we are!" she exclaimed, leading us in. Natsu, Gray and the others were already draped across the couches, chatting quietly.

"Hey guys!" I greeted them, dumping my bag on the floor and taking a seat next to Natsu.

"Hey!'

"Hello,"

"S'up,"

"Juvia says hello!"

the others responded.

"Okay, now that we're all here, let the festivities begin!" shouted Erza, "Let's start off with . . . . . a game of truth or dare!"

"Sure!"

"I'm game!"

"Why not?"

"Juvia agrees!"

"Yeah!"

I nodded my head vigorously; truth or dare was always fun.

"Alright, let's start," said Natsu, "If we go alphabetically, then we should start with . . . Erza!"

"Truth or dare!?" commanded Natsu, looking straight at Erza.

"Erm, dare!" replied Erza.

"I dare you to . . . let someone draw on your face!" squealed Levy, giggling intensely.

"Uhh, okay," replied Erza reluctantly.

"Oooh let me do it!" shouted Natsu and ran to fetch a pen. A minute later he was back, pen in hand, an evil smirk on his face. He ran up to Erza and started drawing intensely on here face, shielding his work with a hand so that we could not see it. Finally, he uncovered his work and a toothy grin spread across his face.

"Done!' he exclaimed proudly.

"Lame!" called Gray, "You only gave her cat whiskers! And she's already wearing a cat costume!"

"Ohhh," said Natsu, realising his mistake, "Well if she wasn't it'd look really cool," he added defensively.

"Anyway, who's next?" I asked, secretly laughing at Erza's reaction to the whiskers.

"I guess it's Gajeel," said Juvia, "My turn! Gajeel, truth or dare?"

And so the game progressed, each time increasing in intensity until Natsu was finally forced to sing a song about how amazing Gray was (guess who decided on that). I glanced at my watch, and seeing that it was starting to approach half past nine, I voiced my suggestion to the others.

"Why don't we watch a movie?" I said.

"Good idea," nodded Erza in approval, switching on the TV, "I have Netflix, so there's plenty of choices.

Before long we had chosen a comedy movie. I lay out my sleeping bag on the couch and snuggled into it, accidentally brushing against Natsu. Our eyes were stuck to the screen for a full two hours, and by the end, we were all just a mess of giggles. Erza switched off the TV and bade us goodnight. I snuggled deeper into my bag, and soon, I had drifted off.

When I awoke, I felt an unnatural pressure on my legs. Blinking hazily, I noted the lump on my legs. I sat up, starting to register what it was.

"Natsu!" I screeched!

 **There you have it! The eighth chapter in this story. This is now officially the longest piece of writing I have written! Thank you to all of you for supporting me so far. Whether you are reading, reviewing, following or favouriting it really lightens my day and fills me with inspiration. Next chapter should be tomorrow, and after that idk. See you then!**

 **P.S: Please do review/favourite/follow! I see everything and it really brightens my day!**


	9. The Start of Something Big!

**Hello everybody! I'm back with another chapter! Got a little thank you to do, which will be at the bottom, as well as thanking you guys/girls for 500 views! 500 people. That's like a whole lot! I'm very grateful that you all stopped by to read, and I hope to continue writing this story for some time! Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: Je ne own pas Fairy Tail. (I don't own Fairy Tail . . . in french . . . . . kinda)**

"Natsu!" I screeched, quickly shoving him off of my legs, "What are you doing!?"

"Huh," he said lazily, "Just five more minutes . . . Mom,"

"Mom!" I screamed, "I'm not your Mom!"

As the others started to wake up and question what was happening, I quickly explained.

"Natsu! Were you troubling Lucy again!?" asked Erza.

"No Ma'am!" Natsu said, panicked, saluting to her, "Now, I gotta' run, I have a . . . violin lesson to get to, see ya'"

And with that, he ran as fast as he could, grabbing his backpack and escaping Erza.

"Well he's right," said Gray, "We probably should get going,"

"Yeah," Levy agreed, "I have some work to do,"

"At least let me cook you guys breakfast," Erza insisted, before hurrying into the kitchen to make some breakfast. Minutes later, she came out with a platter of pancakes.

"If only Natsu was here to see this," I mused to myself, "No matter, more pancakes for us I guess!"

We quickly wolfed down Erza's pancakes, which were surprisingly delicious, before packing up our bags and setting off. I had some work to do on the project, digitalising the sketches we had retrieved from Minerva. Although we were ahead of schedule, there was still plenty of work to be done.

 **(A/N: Bit of a time skip here, 'cause I feel like it would be boring if I described two weeks of drawing and stuff)**

"Done!" I exclaimed, happily.

"Ooh!" yelled Natsu, drawing the attention of several other groups around us, "Let's see it Lucy!"

"Okay!" I replied, turning my piece of paper around to show them the final drawing. It was a perfect end scene, with all the characters posing for a photograph.

"That's perfect!" said Erza, gazing upon the printed version of our last image, "And just in time too, the deadline is tomorrow. Email me all of the images tonight, and I will format them and add the text. Sound good?"

"Yup!" I replied, as the bell started to ring.

That night, I emailed all of the images over to Erza. It took me a while though, as Gmail has a space restriction for attachments per email. Finally, Erza replied to me that she had received them all, and she skyped me, sharing her screen, thus allowing me to watch her work. I had nothing better to do so I sat back and watched her work. Image cropping came first, then placement. Lastly, she added the text in the form of speech bubbles and narration. Finally, she was done.

Erza is typing . . .

Erza: I'm going to print this out and staple it together.

Lucy is typing . . .

Lucy: Sure, I'm gonna' go to bed now, c u tomorrow!

Erza: Good night!

I shut down my computer, and collapsed on my bed. I couldn't wait to see the finished copy of what we had been working tirelessly to produce. It wasn't long before I was out.

The next day, I rushed to school as quickly as possible, anxious to see the final project. Sure enough, as I had thought, Erza was waiting outside Mrs. Strauss's room, waiting for her to get into school. Without speaking, Erza handed me the, remarkably thick, booklet and let me flip through it. As I looked through the brightly coloured pages, seeing the all the hard work we had put in I felt only one emotion: pride. I smiled at Erza, not needing to speak one word.

A few minutes later, Mrs. Strauss had arrived, along with Natsu. We presented the project to her, explaining that a lot of the characters in it were from real life, and that we hoped that she would enjoy reading it.

"I'm sure I will," she smiled back at us.

 **The Next Day At the Principals Office (Don't worry, I won't be switching from Lucy's perspective too much)**

"Good morning Mrs. Strauss, how may I help you today?" the principal asked.

"I'm here to talk about the school newspaper," said Mrs. Strauss, "I have a proposal for a new section,"

"And what might that be?" inquired Mr. Makarov.

'Well, as you know, I recently set my students a project to create a twenty-page manga,"

"Yes. . . "

"And one group of students, Lucy Heartfilia, Erza Scarlet and Natsu Dragneel, have created an amazing project. In fact, if I didn't already know, it could be professional work. It's honestly that good. Here, have a look," she said, earnestly, passing the copy to him.

Mr. Makarov opened up the copy and started to read. Twenty minutes later, he put the copy down on the desk and burst out laughing.

"Sir?" she said, anxiously.

"It's . . . amazing! I have to admit I didn't expect anything like this, and to be honest, I want more. So, to be clear, you're proposing that we add a section to the school magazine, maybe ten pages, of this manga. I think this is actually viable. I will look into the logistics, and money, because we will have to pay them, even if it is a minuscule amount. I suggest that you speak to Lucy, Erza and Natsu about this, but make sure they understand that this is not confirmed yet. You may go now," he said to the beaming Mrs. Strauss.

 **Later That Day**

I was walking to lunch with Natsu and Erza when Mrs. Strauss ambushed us.

"Erza, Natsu, Lucy, could you please come with me," she requested. We followed willingly, confused.

"Pupils, I read your project, and it completely blew me away. The work is professional, the drawing exquisite. I immediately spoke to Mr. Makarov, and he is currently trying to get you guys a segment in the school newspaper. You guys will be paid, a small amount, but nevertheless an amount. If you accept, Mr. Makarov will be able to tell you more about this. So what will it be?" she said.

Natsu and Erza smiled at each other, no words needed. Then they looked to me.

"Hell yeah!" I exclaimed.

 **There you go, the ninth chapter of this fic! I can't believe I'm actually managing to continuously updating this! The story is really starting to progress, and I can't wait to see how you guys react to this chapter! Thank you beebee367 for following! I have no idea when I can update next, but it's sure to be fairly soon! See you all then!**

 **Remember to favourite, follow and review if you enjoyed!**


	10. XXXXX's Home!

**Hey everyone! I'm here with the tenth chapter of this fic! I hope you enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: 私は妖精の尻尾を所有していません** **(I do not own Fairy Tail, put into google translate so it's probably completely wrong)**

 **P.S: This is continuing from immediately after the previous chapter.**

"Well," replied Mrs. Strauss smiling, "Although I cannot officially condone the use of such language, on an occasion such as this, I will disregard it. Mr Makarov also said that you should go to his office after lunch. He has talked to Mr. Strauss and made sure that he understands that you will be missing the lesson,"

"First, we get into the newspaper, then we get to miss maths!" shouted Natsu, "Best day ever!"

Mrs. Strauss smiled and starting to chuckle she walked away, leaving us to go to lunch, excitedly discussing this turn of events.

"Guys! Guys! Guess what!?" I exclaimed, hurrying to the table where our friends were sitting, "Mrs. Strauss just told us, that she's going to put our manga in the school newspaper! And, she's gonna' add a new segment, just for our manga!"

"Yeah, but more importantly," yelled Natsu, "We get to miss maths!"

There was an awkward silence, before my friends ignored Natsu's comment.

"Juvia is so happy for you!"

"Pretty cool, I guess,"

"Wow Lucy! That's so cool!"

"That's pretty neat!"

the others replied all at once.

"We have to go meet Mr Makarov soon, so we'd better be off, but, as my comrades forgot to mention, we get paid!" spoke Erza, smiling at the looks of disbelief on the others' faces.

"Come on guys!" I called, already at the door. There was no way that I was going to be late for this meeting.

Taking a deep breath, I knocked on the door. My knuckles rapped sharply against the hard oaken wood. To be honest, this was the first time I would be actually seeing the principal. Sure, I had received a welcoming email from him upon joining the school, but I had never spoken to him in person. Judging by the stories Natsu had told me of his punishments, he was a real force to be reckoned with. We meekly waited outside the door; even Erza's usual calm collectedness had vanished. As a muffled voice called for us to enter, I prepared myself for a tall, imposing man. Probably wearing a formal suit with steel-rimmed spectacles. However, upon opening the door, I was greeted with the exact opposite. Before stood an old, short man, about four and a half feet in height. Instead of the suit I was expecting, he wore a comfortable cloak, waistcoat and pants. He wasn't wearing a stern expression, instead, he bore a wide grin.

"Come, sit down," he smiled at Erza, Natsu and I.

I took a seat from the three comfy chairs that were laid out in front of the principal's desk. The principal walked around and sat down in his comfy armchair. He settled himself, before turning to face us.

"Pupils, it has never happened before in my time at this school, that pupils have created something of such high quality that I have decided to add it to the school newspaper. The school newspaper may seem small, but at one pound/dollar/franc/euro (IDK where you live) with over two hundred copies sold per week, it is definitely not the case. I hope my colleague made this clear, but I will explain again to make sure you understand. I am offering you the chance to have a ten-page manga edition segment of the newspaper in every edition. The editions, as you know, are released every two weeks. I understand that you will not always be able to meet these deadlines which is why I understand that the manga may not appear in every edition. However, if I may say so, as a friend, not a teacher, please make more as soon as you can - I have to find out what happens to Bora! In any case," he said, calming down, "I propose a salary of ten [insert your currency] per person, per issue. Now, I know you all will need time to consider whether - "

"Count me in!" shouted Natsu.

"Me too," smiled Erza.

"Definitely!" I said, almost giddy with excitement.

"Well," he said, visibly chuckling, "I assume you wouldn't mind starting . . now?"

We all nodded vigorously.

"Then it's settled," he said, satisfied, "You many return to your next lesson, English, was it?"

We thanked him for this wonderful opportunity and I shook his hand so hard, that I was sure it would fall off. Finally, though, we were out of his office and out of earshot of anyone. Immediately, we all started jabbering animatedly to each other:

"I'll finally get to show that Minerva -"

"I cannot wait to get started,"

"Woohoo! Party!"

"The look on her face'll be -

"We'll need to make another mini storyboard and redraft, and -"

"And then we can all eat cake!"

Realising we were all talking at once, we burst out into uncontrollable laughter, which although disappeared as soon as we entered the English classroom, left a lasting joyous mood in our hearts. Nothing could dampen my spirits now, they were positively soaring, and by the dreamy looks on Erza and Natsu's face, I could tell I wasn't the only one.

After school ended, our group of friends all huddled together near my locker.

"Although we just celebrated at Erza's house, this definitely calls for a night out!" Gray exclaimed, "I dunno' maybe, bowling? Followed by eating out?"

We all seemed to agree, and before long, we had arranged a time and place. Riding high on my success, I couldn't wait to get home and start to work. Now that I was on my throne of elation, nothing could dispossess me of it. Absolutely nothing.

As I turned the handle of my door, I immediately felt something was off. There was no reason, nothing different, but something, maybe a sixth sense, was unsettled. The hairs on my neck stood up straight, spooked. I looked around cautiously before swivelling around to catch sight of the face I tried so hard to forget but never could rid my mind of.

"Lucy, I'm home," the face spoke.

 **Mysterious, eh? . . . Not really, you probably can all guess. In any case, PM/review me any answers you may have as to who this unsettling figure may be! I can't believe I've reached ten chapters! *looks at BTL (between the lines)* . . . Never mind . . . But in all seriousness, thank you to everybody reading for sticking with me through ought. Your kind words make me proud, and every action, favourite, follow, review or view never goes unnoticed. As well as this, we've hit 500 views! The fact that 500 hundred of you have decided to put the time into reading my work is just crazy to me. Thank you all so much, and I hope to see you all in the next chapter, coming tomorrow or day after that. Also, please do review, favourite and follow! See you all later!**


	11. A Proposition? Maybe?

**_Hello everyone! I still have no idea how, but in just a day we gained over 200 views! That's insane! We are rapidly approaching 1000 views, and I will be sure to notify you all when that happens! As for now, here's another chapter!_**

 ** _Disclaimer: ! !_**

"Lucy, I'm home," the face spoke.

"Now come here and give your daddy a hug," he continued.

Grudgingly, I stepped up to him and embraced him quickly, letting go as soon as possible.

I stepped back, to scrutinise his new appearance. His earlier beard had been trimmed to a mustard moustache, and he wore a plaid suit. He had evidently just come back form his business flight.

"I'll be home for tonight; I leave early tomorrow morning, but after a few weeks I'll be back," he said curtly, no trace of emotion in his voice, "Don't disturb me,"

And with those "loving" remarks, he went straight to his study. I huffed, resigned to my fate, and went to my room. I had a lot to do.

"But Erza, if we have Lucy read the book, and find out all the secret magic stuff, then they can't get the reward!" argued Natsu, "How will they survive without load and load of money?!"

"Natsu, I've told you over and over again, it's not about the money. That should never be a problem for our characters. They're professional wizards, I'm sure they'll find a way to make a living somehow," responded Erza, "Besides, I'm sure Macao wouldn't mind lending them some money after the saved him earlier,"

"True," Natsu conceded reluctantly.

I opened my mouth to speak, hoping to suggest a new idea, when I heard the footsteps of my father, heading towards my door.

"Shh guys," I squeaked desperately, minimising my skype and a pulling up a web page on calculus. My door swung open as my father entered.

"Lucy, what are you doing?" he asked, "I've been hearing talking, was it you?"

I shook my head vigorously, maybe a little _too_ vigorously.

"You know I don't condone talking to your friends this late at night," he followed, staring intently at me, searching for a sign of falseness. Luckily he found none, and telling me to go to bed, he left.

I opened up my skype, quickly conveyed this message to them, and lay flat out on my bed.

The next week was a blur. Day after day I drew, new scenes, new characters, some fictional, some real. Almost every night, Erza, Natsu and I would talk. We drafted, re-drafted, even re-re-drafted. It had to be perfect. And when the next deadline came around we were more than ready.

"Here you go!" I said excitedly, as I passed the pages to the principal, "What do you think?"

We waited anxiously, the tension building, before Mr Makarov beamed at us.

"Pupils, you've done it again! This'll definitely be in the next issue of the magazine!"

We all breathed a deep breath of relief; we'd all been terrified of making Mrs Strauss look bad.

 **Tomorrow Night at Mrs Strauss's House**

 **"** Hey Mira! What's going on over there; you've been stuck reading that thing for ages already! What even is it?" asked Laxus, Mirajane Strauss's husband.

"It's just a manga that some of my students created. It's really good though, that's why it's in the school newspaper," she replied.

"Hey, let me have a look," he said, his interest piqued. She handed him the first edition. A few minutes later, Laxus looked up from the newspaper he had previously been engrossed in.

"Hey Mira," he said, his tone low, "This is . . . _really_ good. Like really good. This is the standard of the artists I employ,"

"You're not thinking . . " she replied, covering her mouth with her hand.

"Not yet," her husband replied, "But please do keep me up to date with them. If they continue producing work like this, just the . . three of them . . then a contract is definitely and option. Don't o saying anything to them though, I don't want to get their hopes up,"

That night, Mirajane had trouble sleeping. She wanted the best for Lucy, but she knew her father all too well from the last parents evening. She shuddered, just thinking of the memory.

"Art is just a useless subject, I don't need to hear from _you_ ," she remembered his scornful words. That night it had been hard for her to stop Laxus from marching straight to Lucy's house.

Although she tossed and turned, it took her hours to get to sleep.

 ** _I'm very very sorry for this short chapter everyone. I know it was probably pretty boring, but I wanted to get at least something out to you guys. Anyway, we now have 15 follows and 15 reviews!_**

 ** _Thank you to:_**

 ** _Mavis Chase_**

 ** _Ciaracool200_**

 ** _Chat'r Box_**

 ** _for all you follows and favourites._**

 ** _Also, in the time I was writing this chapter, we got an odd 50 views! That's just ridiculous! Thank you to all of you, and remember to favourite, follow and please do leaver a review._**

 ** _P.S: has offered to do some cover art for this story! Great thanks to you for offering and you all can expect that sometime in the next two weeks ish._**

 ** _P.P.S: I know that it's no excuse but I just started Your Lie in April. Being a musician myself I am incredibly hooked, and may or may not have interspersed my writing with an episode . . . . . . or five._**

 ** _Bye! Se y'all later!_**


	12. It's All Gonna' Be Okay

**Hello everybody! Before I start this chapter, WE HIT 1000 VIEWS! That's just crazy! Also, half of those, were in two days! I can't thank you all enough, but I hope this extra long chapter will help! This milestone means a lot to me, and I hope you continue to read and enjoy my work. I honestly don't know how to thank you all, but I will do whatever I can! I also have a few thank you's to do so see the bottom for those. Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: (Not sure why my disclaimer didn't display last time) I don't own Fairy Tail or Kodansha Comics.**

 **ALSO PLEASE NOTE: There is a section of this chapter that includes some fairly graphic violence. I have upped the rating of the story to T because of this. I will not remove it though, I feel it is an instrumental part of the story. If you are particularly squeamish, like me (odd 'cause I wrote this), then you will probably be fine, but I'm just giving a warning. Also, if you feel that the rating needs to be upped or reverted please PM/review me.**

"Wow, Lucy! This is so cool!" exclaimed Levy, holding the latest copy of the school magazine, "Please hurry though! I just have to find out what happens to Phantom Lord!"

It had now been almost two months since out manga had started showing up in the school newspaper. Pretty soon, the whole school was all over it, apart from Minerva of course. Everyone liked the fact that lots of the characters were from real life, and even most of the teachers would congratulate me each time a new issue came out. I myself could hardly believe this success. Each day, Erza, Natsu and I came into school tired, but satisfied. My father would be back again soon, and so the secrecy would have to be maintained. Just the fact the people were looking at my drawings, and, admiring them, was something so inspiring that it often brought tears to my eyes.

Everywhere I looked, I saw only admiration and praise, except for one place: Minerva's eyes. It made sense, I suppose. After the manga started to become popular, so did I and my friends. Minerva was no longer the top dog. Her usual gang of friends who used to follow her around everywhere had abandoned her, save for a few. Every time I looked at her, the look in her eyes made me quiver with fear. The only thing I saw there was pure, unadulterated rage. The desire for retribution burned in her eyes. I knew that if she got a moment alone with me, she would beat me into the ground. I tried to always be surrounded by my group of friends, which now, wasn't that hard. However, on Fridays I had to walk alone, the others had clubs. I usually left early on those days though, so there was no way she could touch me.

My pay had increased as well, as more people were buying the school newspaper. Mrs Strauss was incredibly proud of us, of course. I believe I once saw tears in her eyes. Erza had started to loosen up, and Natsu was working harder than I had ever seen him work before. We worked together flawlessly as a team; gone were the days when Natsu and Erza would bicker childishly over some arbitrary detail. My drawing skill had improved vastly as well; I was now able to produce much better quality art than I had been able to previously.

My friends were of course incredibly supportive of our work. Levy, Gray and Juvia loved the weekly editions and were always asking me about the next upcoming edition. Gajeel, however, although normally very reserved, often complimented my latest work, something unlike him. Levy had been helping me manage my "finances" as she liked to call them. Essentially, she helped me to keep my money safe in a bank account. Being the ever humble friend she was, she refused to take anything for her services, saying that our new chapters were reward enough.

At Mrs Strauss's House

"What do you think?" Mirajane Strauss asked her husband Laxus.

"I think . . . I think that it might just be time to talk to these kids," Laxus responded, "I never thought they'd get this far, to be honest. Most projects like this fizzle out pretty quickly. But this one . . . the quality keeps increasing and, I . . I sense greatness here,"

"You do?" Mirajane exclaimed, tears appearing in the corners of her eyes, "You think that they could make it professionally?"

"I do," he said, "I honestly do,"

The Next Morning at the Principal's Office

"You really think they have what it takes?" asked Principal Makarov, already knowing the answer to his question.

"I really do," replied Laxus seriously, "I would appreciate you letting me speak to them, say, Friday afternoon?"

Mr Makarov sighed. He wanted the best for Lucy, but he knew her father's sharpness all too well.

"No," he thought to himself, "That's not my decision to make; it's her's,"

"Of course," he said resignedly, "I'll arrange it,"

Friday Afternoon

"Lucy, please stay behind for a minute, I have to speak with you," Mrs Strauss called, "Don't worry, you're not in trouble," she added, seeing the worried look on my face.

"I'd appreciate if you two could stay back too," she said, gesturing towards Natsu and Erza.

"I'm sorry, Mrs Strauss, I have a piano lesson," replied Erza apologetically, dashing out the door as she talked.

"And I have a club to get to," whined Natsu.

'Very well," Mrs Strauss huffed, "I suppose Lucy will fill you in later,"

"Goodbye Lucy!" said Erza.

"See y'a Luce!" shouted Natsu.

"Don't call me Luce!" I shouted back, turning to face Mrs Strauss.

"Please follow me, Lucy," she said, leading me through the school. Her voice was neutral, too neutral. Something was wrong. She led me through to a part of the school I had never entered before, reserved specially for teachers. Finally, we stopped at a conference room.

"Go in!" she smiled at me. Still pretty confused as to the nature of this conference, I cluelessly pushed open the door and took a seat.

The room was painted completely white, and was bare, except for a fancy glass table in the middle. It was a long table, stretching the length of the room, and at the head sat a yellow haired man. His hair was bright yellow, and a scar in the shape of a lightning bolt streaked through his right eye. He wore a fur coat, not unlike Minerva's except his hands dangled loosely, not in his sleeves.

"Hello Lucy," said Laxus, "I've been waiting a long time for this day. I am Laxus Dreyar, the CEO of Kodansha Comics. I would like to offer you a deal,"

"L - l - lax -u - us Dr - dr - eyar? Oh lord," I spoke faintly, as a haze of tiredness took hold, my vision turned black and I lost consciousness.

I blinked furiously, looking around. Where was I? Then I remembered, and promptly passed out again.

The second time I woke up, my nerves had stabilised themselves. I sat up from the floor I had been lying on and regained my seating on the chair.

"Ah, now that you're awake, let's talk business," Laxus continued, "I have been reading your manga for the past few months, and I think that it is simply beautiful. The drawing is perfect, the story addicting, and I want to offer you a contract. We can work out the specifics later; expect a letter in the mail, but that is all I wanted to tell you. I hope you consider this well,"

With that, he rose, his coat arms rising into the air with him, and sauntered out, leaving me speechless.

A few minutes later, my brain started to register what had just happened. I couldn't believe that it was true. It couldn't be. I was dreaming. It was just a dream, that's all. Soon, I would wake up to the sound of reality. But if it was a dream, why did it feel so real?

I walked dazedly out of the school alone. None of my friends were around, and it was too late for any teachers to still be in. Mrs Strauss must have left with Laxus, so she wasn't there with me. Drunkenly, stumbling in my dreamlike state, half in reality, half gone, I started to walk home. I was too far gone to remember my predicament. When I had almost reached home, I heard the ever so familiar voice behind those creepy, sadistic eyes.

"Well if it isn't Lucy, walking home by herself, all alone," sneered Minerva from behind me. I spun to face her, snapping out of my state. Dream or not, an angry Minerva was not something I wanted to face alone. My "dream" could wait until later. Right now, I was in danger, immediate danger. I moved to run to my house, but one of Minerva's few friends blocks my path, pushing me backwards. Minerva grabbed me by the neck and hissed into my ear:

"Do you know what you've done to me? I used to be important, my word used to go. Now, people won't even look at me. I've been exiled, and it's all because of you. All the suffering I've had to go through; you'll feel it too!" she roared, tightening her grip on me, rendering me immobile.

"Look, Minerva, I'm really sorry, I truly am, but hurting me won't solve any of your -"

"SHUT IT!" she shouted, "Sorry, isn't going to get you out of this. You've crossed me, and now, it's time to pay,"

As a psychopathic glint started to take over in Minerva's eyes, I started to panic. This girl was crazy, insane. There was clearly something wrong with her. But none of that mattered. My contract, which I had now decided was real, would be for nothing, not if I was hospitalised.

Minerva thrust me onto her friend, who kept me in a chokehold. Minerva started to hit me, slapping my face, leaving a red mark. She pummelled me into the ground, not stopping, or showing any signs of mercy. I cried out with each blow, feeling its impact jarring through my bones. I was powerless to resist, putty in her hands. Bruises formed all over my body, and I was starting to bleed. After a while, the pain searing through my body could not be felt any longer. I opened my eyes, wincing as I did so.

"Don't you ever dare mess with my Lucy again!" roared Natsu. Clearing my vision of the blood leaking from a cut above my eye, I saw Natsu advancing towards my two attackers, hands balled tightly into fists. He raised his hands to pulverise them, but stopped hearing my croaks of agony.

"Luce," he said, his voice softening as he took deep breaths to calm himself, "You're right. They're not worth my time. We need to get you to a hospital,"

"I'll deal with you later," he said, shooting the two terrified girls a look of contempt. He picked me up, carrying me in his arms.

"How did you find me?" I croaked, coughing up blood in the process.

"I was walking back from my club when I heard your cries. But that doesn't matter for now. We need to get you to a hospital fast. Those girls - they're gonna' get it. But not from me, from Makarov. Don't worry Luce," he said, re - assuring me, "You're gonna' be just fine,"

 **Wow! That, by the way, was not an easy chapter to write. A) First attempt at anything vaguely fluffy, B) That Minerva scene was painful to write, it really was. C) Dazed Lucy, is also hard to write. However, I included these all just for you guys! I really owe you guys a lot for this milestone. Again, thank you so much to all of you.**

 **Thank you to:**

 **Mirror Flame**

 **Mr Dragon Man**

 **xMisasha**

 **Guest**

 **for your reviews, follows and favourites. I hope you all stick with me to the end if this fic, which at this rate, may be sooner than anticipated. Don't worry though, I still have more in store, as well as another fic idea in the works. Please do leave a favourite, follow or review! I hope to see you all in the next chapter! (Also, this chapter is officially the longest one yet!)**

 **P.S: If you couldn't tell already, I hate Minerva.**


	13. True Friends!

**Hello Everybody! Hope you enjoyed the last extra long chapter! So sorry that I couldn't update yesterday, I was really busy. In any case, I've written one today so there you go!**

 **P.S: Sorry for the cliffhanger last chapter (but not really)**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail . . . . duh.**

I blinked hazily, recoiling at the sudden pain jolting across my face. I could hardly keep my eyes open, but I could vaguely make out a face pressed close to mine smiling happily.

"Ah, you're finally awake!" the lady spoke. I could barely make out her features as my eyes still pained when trying to focus.

"My eyes," I croaked, my throat dry and cracked.

"Of course," the lady said, a more serious look taking a hold of her face, "The medicine I gave you should kick in soon, and the pain should be relieved. Over the time you've been out, most of your other scabs and cuts have healed, although the bruises still remain. Luckily, your friend intervened before you broke any bones. He took you straight here and refused to leave your side until he physically had to. Your other friends came to visit as well, they've gone out for a bite to eat but they should be back soon,"

Then all my memories starting flooding back to me in flashes. The contract, walking home from school, Minerva, and finally Natsu rescuing me. That Minerva, she was just . . crazy. I didn't even want to think about her.

My eyes started to focus; obviously, the medicine was working. As I started to see clearly, the lady in front of me realised how uncomfortably close to me she was, and jerked back, apologising.

"Ahh! I'm so sorry, I completely forgot to introduce myself!" she spoke quickly, "I'm Lissanna Strauss, the sister of your art teacher. I've heard all about you from my sister, and I've read all your manga!"

I tried to smile, but my face still ached horribly, so I thought the better of it. I started to move my neck, to look around the room I was in. It was a plain white room, and I was sitting in a blue hospital bed. The walls were bare, the only thing important in the room being Lissanna.

"How long . . how long will I be here?" I managed, struggling against the pain.

"Well, considering the state you're in, I'm going to have to say, at least another three days, if not more. And before you ask," she said, seeing me opening my mouth, "Your Principal Makarov has said that he doesn't need another chapter in by your next deadline. My sis - your teacher also told me how hard working you are. But, no matter how much you want to get up and leave, I'm under strict orders to keep you here. As for any form of entertainment - ah! There are your friends now!"

"Lucy!"

"Lucy!"

"Lucy"

"Lucy"

"Lucy"

"Bunny girl!"

"Oh my gosh, Lucy, when Natsu called me I was so worried - he said that you were at the hospital and that you were hurt really badly so we came at once and -" Levy started speaking quickly.

"I'm fine you guys, don't worry, really; Lissanna said that I'll be out of here in a few days," I replied, overjoyed that my friends cared about me so much.

"We brought you some gifts," Erza spoke up, "Some sandwiches from Natsu, a miniature snow globe that Gajeel, Juvia and Gray made, some books from Levy, and a card from me,"

"Anyway, though," Levy interrupted, "Let's not think about this any longer; what's more important is the good news!"

"What news?" I asked, curious to know what they were talking about.

Levy facepalmed.

"The contract you dumbo!" she cried.

"Congratulations!" said Juvia warmly, "This is almost as good as the time that I met Gray-sama!" she said, clapping her hands together excitedly.

"Yeah Luce, this is a real big break for us!" exclaimed Natsu, "Will all the money we'll get, I'll be able to go to an all you can eat buffet, every day!"

"Speaking of money," Levy said nervously, "While you were out, Natsu and Erza talked to Mr Dreyar, and they all agreed that you would need a financial manager. I know I'm definitely not the most qualified, but I was wondering if -"

I cut her short by frantically nodding my head up and down, so much so that it started to ache again.

"We're gonna' be such a good team!" beamed Levy.

"But what about your father?" asked Erza, voicing the question that was on all of our minds.

"I'll deal with my father," I said, not really thinking my words through. The visible atmosphere of tension that had been building up disappeared. Nobody liked the prospect of facing up to my father. Not my friends, not me.

We chattered for another half hour before it was time for my friends to go. None of us touched upon the issue of my attacker, although it was obvious that Natsu was trying as hard as he could to not let his rage show. Before long they started to trickle out, to various appointments, classes and activities, and soon it was just Lissanna and me.

"Your friends really do care about you, don't they," she smiled at me, "It's nice to know you have people you can trust. Also, I completely forgot to mention, but Mr Makarov has called to see Minerva next week. She has been suspended from the school until then, but I'm fairly sure that that meeting is will be the last time she sees the school. Even if she doesn't go to prison, she will definitely be expelled,"

I nodded my understanding. I wanted to be present for that meeting, but for now, I opened up one of the books Levy had brought me. I sighed at the pleasant "new-book" smell, and began to read.

 **Bit of a boring chapter maybe but hopefully you'll enjoy it! The main storyline isn't going to progress for a few more chapters as I'm not ready to skip over Lissanna just yet.**

 **Thank you NeonPearl for your review, for some reason I wasn't able to PM you a reply so I'll thank you here. Please consider reviewing, favouriting or following. Thank you all for reading, and I'll see you all in the next chapter.**

 **P.S: I feel like I'm forgetting something here. Not sure what it is.**


	14. Super Epic Fun Time Surprise!

**Hey everyone. First off, I'm really sorry for not updating for most of this week; I've been stuck in bed with the fever and other viruses etc. I'm still pretty ill, but feeling a little better. I'm really sorry for leaving you guys hanging but I was honestly too sick to write. This chapter will be quite short, but I just want to at least get something out to you guys. I can't promise when my next update will be, but it's likely Monday if I'm better. I really hope you guys understand! Also, quite a few thank you's below which I've missed due to being sick. Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail.**

 **P.S: This chapter will be kinda pointless but I think we need something to lighten the mood before the meeting with Makarov and Minerva.**

"Good news Lucy!" Lissanna exclaimed, "The tests have come in! Although you've been here a few days longer than expected, the doctors have finally deemed you fit to leave!"

I gave a little squeak of delight, thrilled at the prospect of finally being able to leave.

"So I can leave . . now?" I asked.

"Yes!" she replied, smiling kindly, "In fact, your friends are waiting for you outside the hospital. They came quickly when I told them you'd be released this Saturday,"

I started to rise, anxious to be re - united with the real world. I discreetly changed from my hospital gown into some jeans and a T - shirt that Lissanna had provided for me. Then I picked up all of the books Levy had brought and followed Lissanna out of the hospital room.

I had only been out of the hospital room once during my stay there, when I had gone to a testing room for the doctors to run some test on my progress. I followed Lissanna down a flight of stairs, through a few corridors and out some double doors to meet my friends.

"Hi Lucy!"

"Hello,"

"S'up Luce!"

"Hey,"

"Hi!"

"Hey Bunny Girl,"

"Hi everyone!" I greeted them.

"Come quick Luce, we've made huge plans for the day!" shouted Natsu.

"Go ahead," smiled Lissanna, waving me towards them. I walked after my friends to the massive SUV car waiting in the car park, asking them all the while where we were going.

"It's a surprise!" replied Levy, grinning mischievously as she opened one of the car's doors.

Natsu and Gray sat in the front, Erza, Gajeel and Juvia in the middle, and Levy and I in the back.

Gray started up the engine and began to pull out of his parking space. Before long we were on the highway.

The journey was about an hour or so, but when we got there, the long bumpy ride paid off. I got out of the car and looked up in wonder. Large metal rails reached into the sky, dancing their way in mind-bending twists and turns. I gasped, as Natsu, seemingly healed from his temporary plight of motion sickness jumped out of the car and yelled, "SURPRISE!"

"Thank you all so much, really, this is truly amazing . . . but to be fair, how much did the tickets cost?" I enquired.

"They were free," grunted Gajeel, "I know a guy,"

And that was that. We all ran into the park, smiling and shouting in excitement . . . and then stopped because I realised I wasn't quite ready to run yet.

"Guess we'll have to stick to walking!" Natsu grinned with no less enthusiasm than before.

So, we all walked into the park, smiling and talking animatedly in excitement.

"Let's find a list of rides," I suggested, "That way we can easily decide what to do first,"

My friends all agreed, so we found a display screen showing all the rides and their wait times. Considering that we were so early, there were only two minutes wait times for the majority of rides.

"Ooooh!" yelled Natsu, pointing to a picture of a burger on a nearby food truck, "Let's do this one!"

"Dumbrain," sighed Gray, "That's not even a ride!"

"I know. Let's go through the rides progressively, from least scariness to most," declared Erza, "I've already had Levy order them based on online reviews,"

"Sure!"

"Yeah,"

"Juvia agrees!"

"Why not,"

"Let's do it!" I exclaimed.

The first roller coaster we rode was named "Zodiac" **(A/N: That's actually a real rollercoaster!)**

Although it didn't look that scary, it was extremely hard to force my brain to tell my muscles to walk towards the ride. Finally, though, we were clipped into the carriages, and my feeling of scariness had disappeared. I guess I was just resigned to my fate. Of course, as I knew I would, I enjoyed the whole thing. The wind, rushing through my hair, me, clutching Levy's hand tightly as we screamed in exhilaration together. Before we knew it, the ride was over. Now looking at it again, it hadn't actually been that scary. No loops, or drops. From then on, the day just got better. As the rides grew more intense, we screamed louder and enjoyed it more.

By the end of the day, we were emotionally spent. Gray drove us back to town and dropped us all at our respective houses.

"Bye Gray!" I waved, as the car sped off down the road. I let myself into the house and collapsed in my bedroom. I hadn't had a proper dinner, but my lunch had been so hearty, that it didn't really matter. Without changing into my pyjamas, I snuggled under the covers and lay my head down on the pillow. I needed no aid getting to sleep.

 **There you go everybody! Managed to write this whenever I wasn't stuck in some ill dazed version of myself. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, but again, really sorry for not updating. I literally wasn't able to, so I hope you all understand. Hopefully another update on Monday, but that's not definite.**

 **Thank you to:**

 **This is me7**

 **WinterSummit**

 **NeonPearl**

 **KrispiKreme**

 **Kyouya Sata**

 **stormbreeze19**

 **for all your reviews, follows and favourites. Please do review, follow and favourite, it encourages me and inspires to write more (unless I'm sick in which case I turn into a zombie incapable of thinking). In any case, (Achoo) I'll see you all in the next chapter! Bye!**

 **P.S: Still feel like I'm forgetting something. Oh yeah, and if I forgot to thank you, please PM me, I'm very sorry.**


	15. She's sorry

**Hey everyone, I'm back with another chapter! Thank you's at the bottom and please enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail.**

I was waiting outside the door of Mr Makarov's office, due for a meeting with him and Minerva in a few minutes. I wiped some sweat from my forehead and sighed to steady my already shaking body. Although Minerva didn't scare me, the thought of her and what she did to me seemed to haunt my body, and whenever I thought of her it seized up and shivered intensely. I took another sigh and tried to steady my mind. "Oxygen was key to coherent thought," I thought to myself before shaking myself. I had nothing to fear; she was in the wrong, not I.

I heard a familiar voice call out to me, "Come in, Lucy". Principal Makarov sounded significantly less happy to see me than before. Taking a deep breath one last time, I twisted the handle and opened the door. The room had been split into two sections, the left and the right. Minerva sat on a blue chair on the right, Mr Strauss standing next to her, presumably to restrain her if necessary. Mr Makarov sat at his desk in the middle, a stern look on his face, while Mr Dreyar was leaning against the wall in the corner, staring intently at me. I took myself seat, the only empty chair. A silence covered the room for almost a full minute. I could hardly bring myself to look at Minerva; I was scared I wouldn't be able to hold back my emotions. I wasn't scared for myself, though. However, as the long tense silence continued, I risked a glance at her. She was no longer wearing her fancy fur coat and designer jeans, in their place were simple garments, designed with utility not looks in mind. The most significant change were her eyes. Gone was the fury that used to dominate there, leaving only remorse. I could almost feel sorry for her. Almost.

Finally, the silence was broken.

"Minerva," said Mr Makarov, "I have heard from a pupil, Natsu Dragneel, that you have assaulted one of my children, Lucy Heartfilia,"

My eyes widened in surprise at the word "children. Natsu had said that this was one of Mr Makarov's weird quirks but the idea of a father figure as a role model had just caught me off guard.

"I also have hospital records that support this claim," he continued, "So Minerva, how to you plead?"

Another silence fell over the room. Mr Makarov's glare was stony; Mr Dreyar was now staring at Minerva and Minerva was looking down at the floor. I was just waiting to see what she would say, if she would still deny the charge even with all the evidence.

"Guilty," she whispered through a hoarse voice before repeating it, stronger this time, "Guilty,"

"I'm glad you aren't going to make this difficult, my girl," said Mr Makarov, his glare not softening, "I personally, am not going to punish you; the law will do that just fine tomorrow,"

Minerva jerked back in her chair a little; this was apparently news to her as well. So Minerva had a trial tomorrow.

"Minerva, you are dismissed, please leave," he ordered, not even looking at the girl, "Lucy please move your chair to the centre, we have much to talk about,"

Minerva rose, not even looking at any of us, and walked out the door. On her way out, she stopped.

"I - I'm sorry, Lucy", she whispered before continuing on her way. Before I had time to react to this, Mr Makarov started to speak.

"Lucy, first of all, I'd like to apologise for everything that Minerva has done to you," he said, sorrow in his voice, seemingly ignoring Minerva's "apology", "I hope you are recovering well. Secondly, I would like to inquire as to the location of your father,"

"He's away," I replied.

"I thought as much; we received no emails from him recently regarding Minerva so we thought as much. Now, would you like us to tell him about this incident or - "

"No," I said immediately, "I'll tell him,"

"Very well," said Mr Makarov, seemingly not surprised by this at all, "Now, to the crux of the matter. I would like you to be present for Minerva's trial tomorrow. (A/N: Although my mother is a lawyer, I still have no idea how a trial works. I have something planned, but it may be factually incorrect)

As the victim, in this case, you may be called upon to bear testimony against her. Other than that, I believe Mr Dreyar also has something to say,"

"Hello Lucy," he said calmly, pushing himself away from the wall and standing up straight, "Based on the events of the last week - ish, I would like to up the pay discussed in the contract. Double it, actually. Based on what I've been hearing from Gramps here, taking this job might not be the easiest thing for you. Just a little incentive to help you decide, eh? Remember, whenever you and your blue-haired friend approve of the contract, gimme a call!"

"Thank you for being here Lucy," said Gra - Mr Makarov, "I understand that this might be hard for you. You are free to go, and don't worry, your friends are waiting for you outside,"

I got up, still in disbelief at the offer Mr Dreyar had just made, and walked back outside to my waiting friends.

"So?" asked Natsu, not one for awkward, tentative steps, "What'd he say?"

"I just need to go to a court tomorrow for Minerva's trial - you should probably come too. More importantly, though," I said, trying to get away from the subject, "Mr Dreyar just doubled our pays!"

Everybody took a step back and gasped. Although only Levy, Natsu and Erza knew the figures, the increase was still recognisable.

"But that, that's!" stuttered Levy, as we all started laughing, both delighted at the good news, and because of the look on Levy's face.

 **There you go, everybody! Another chapter where the story is starting to progress! I feel like this fic will probably reach twenty chapters, just. I hope you all are starting to get hooked, maybe, I don't really know.**

 **Thank you to:**

 **Moonlightgreen50**

 **"insert something . something that disappears when I type it here** **" Sorry for this, it disappears on the site when I type it.**

 **CyanMew**

 **for favouriting and following!**

 **If I have forgotten you here, and there's probably someone being the person that I am, please PM me and I will fix that right away. Hope you enjoyed! Thank you all for reading, please follow, favourite, review, like, comment, subscribe, re-tweet . . . . just the first three. See you all in the next chapter!**

 **P.S: Almost at 2000 views! Also, we hit 10 reviews! At some point in the past . . .**


	16. A, Frankly Boring, Trial And A Movie!

Hello everyone! Another chapter here! Enjoy!

"Here it is, I think," I said, pointing to the large building in front of me.

"Well, the name matches," commented Erza, "So I guess this is it,"

Hesitantly, I walked forward, and knocked on the oak wood, twice in succession. I waited a few moments.

"Maybe this isn't the place after all - " I started to say before the door swung open. Inside was a short man clothed in a fancy suit.

"Mrs. Lucy Heartfilia?" he asked.

"Yes, that's me," I replied.

"Please follow me," he said, gesturing down the corridor, "Your companions may come as well,"

He turned, and walked briskly down the corridor, leaving Natsu, Erza and I to follow him. The others had wanted to be there, but all of them had been busy on the day. The corridor continued for a quite a while, before it opened up into a large room. The room had a chair in which Minerva was sitting, and a row, where five white-wigged men sat. The trial room was fairly empty, only Minerva's family (I assumed) and a few other pupils from the school were there. The small man pointed towards the raised seats to the left of Minerva and we sat down. The little man hurried off down the corridor, more business to attend to, I guessed.

For a while, the room was covered in an unbroken hush. As the larger hand of the clock overhead struck twelve, the man in the middle brought down a hammer onto a black pad with surprising force. The resulting "bang" echoed through the room and silenced any chattering that might have been happening beforehand.

"Order in the court!" the man shouted.

"We are here today to investigate Minerva Orland. Before us is Minerva Orland," he turned to the jury, "She is suspected to have assaulted a fellow pupils by the name Lucy Heartfilia. Lucy Heartfilia did, in fact, appear to have severe injuries, and has been in hospital for the past few days,"

And so it went on. The judge continued to give details of the case, until, when he seemed to be satisfied, he asked Minerva the first question.

"Minerva, how do you plead?" he asked, looking directly at her over the rims of his spectacles.

"I - I," she whispered as her voice started to crack, "I, Minerva Orland, plead, guilty to the charge,"

A quiet gasp rose from the spectators, earning them another banging of the hammer.

"Order in the court!" the judge commanded, before continuing in a calmer voice, "The tried, pleads guilty. We need not proceed any further in this trial. Based on the facts that I already have, I will make a verdict tonight, and notify all attendants here of my decision, as well as the sentence I will have decided on. Court released,"

The other white-wigged men on the row got up and left, as did the middle man. Natsu, Erza and I who had been silent for the whole "trial" now departed as well, starting to converse again.

"I hope that Minerva gets sent away in the slammer!" shouted Natsu, doing his best to keep his volume down.

"I just hope she gets what she deserves," I said quietly, the tone of my voice indicating that we should change the topic of conversation. I still wasn't sure what I wanted for Minerva. Half of me just wanted her to suffer for her crime, the other half of me secretly hoping she'd be let off now that she had learnt her lesson.

"Anyway," said Erza as we reached the door, "We still have two hours before the lunch we scheduled with the others, so anybody got any ideas?"

"Let's go watch a movie!" suggested Natsu.

"That's not a bad idea actually," I mused, "If I remember correctly, there should be a cinema just a few blocks from here,"

"So it's settled," finalised Erza, "We shall watch a movie!"

We found our way to the nearby cinema, which I had been right about, and got ourselves tickets to the latest Hollywood action movie. After all, we reasoned, after all the stuff we had been through recently, we deserved to treat ourselves. Treat ourselves we did, buying VIP seats and extra large buckets of popcorn. Although the movie itself wasn't that amazing, seeing it with friends really enhanced the experience. After watching the film, we left the theatre chatting excitedly, already heading to lunch with our friends.

 **First of all, really sorry for this boring, uneventful chapter here. I've been busy with a load of stuff, but I still wanted to post something for you guys. Unfortunately there will be no chapter tomorrow due to circumstances I cannot change, but there should be another, proper one on Thursday.**

 **Thank you to:**

 **NeonPearl**

 **Lilly Faerie**

 **for your follows and favourites. I hope you all continue to enjoy this fic, although it is starting to start to almost be coming to an almost end. Thank you all for reading, please favourite, follow and review! See you all in the next chapter!**


	17. Will You Be Back?

**Holy moly guys! We just simultaneously hit 20,000 words, and 2,000 views! Thank you all for sticking with me through this journey! I hope you all enjoy the rest of this fic, but for now here's another chapter.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail**

 **P.S: Ya' know the scene from FT where Lucy kinda' disowns her father? I'm kinda' aiming for something like that.**

"So, Lucy, when's your father getting back?" asked Levy, sipping her lemonade, having already finished her meal.

Dang. I had almost forgotten about him.

"He should be coming home, on . . . June the 19th, I think," I replied. absent-mindedly.

"Lucy," Levy said, her voice suddenly turning serious, "That's today. If he sees all of your drawings and the letter rom Mr. Dreyar, you're gonna' be in a lot of trouble,"

Quickly counting in my head, I realised that Levy was right, today was June 19th.

"Oh God, I better go! He may not be home yet!" I spoke quickly before jumping up from my table and running to the nearest bus stop.

Ten minutes later, I was outside the door. I was severely out of breath, but I did my best to breathe quietly; I still didn't know if he was home or not. I fumbled with my keys before turning it slowly in the lock. Slowly, the door creaked open. I winced at the loud noise, but continued forward, tip-toeing. Cautiously, I made my way to my room. So far so good, no sign of him yet. I opened the door, and it silently swung open.

There, sitting on my bed, was my father. Holding the letter.

"Lucy Heartfilia! How dare you even think of taking up a job! Who will the company go to when I'm gone! Huh? I bet you were too busy thinking about yourself to think of your poor father!"

"That's not true!" I retorted, "If mom were here, she would tell me to follow my dreams!"

"But she's not!" he roared, stunning me.

"You didn't even care about her, did you," I replied scathingly, "You're the reason she died!"

 **Flashback BEGIN!**

"I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but your wife is positive. We're going to have to operate on her as soon as possible. We suggest that you come here immediately. She needs all the support she can get. It is imperative that you drop what you're doing and -"

"Don't tell me what to do! The future of my business is at stake here. I won't drop it just because my wife's feeling a little under the weather. Proceed with the surgery as soon as possible. That is all,"

The doctor shook his head sadly at Lucy's mother. She sighed, and nodded for him to start.

A day later, Lucy's mother died. The operation had been narrowly unsuccessful. Lucy's father did not even interrupt his business trip then.

 **Flashback END!**

"You're the reason she died!"

"Lucy! That has nothing to do with this! If you take this contract, I'll, I'll,"

His eyes glinted evilly.

"I'll disown you,"

I took a step back. My own father, willing to give me up. So easily.

"No!" I screamed, "You're no father of mine! I'll accept the contract, and I'll prove you wrong! Art is not useless!"

And with that, fuming and boiling with rage, I snatched the letter from his hands and stormed down the stairs and out the door.

"You'll be back!" my father shouted after me. But I wouldn't. I would show him. I pulled out my phone and made a few calls. Within a few minutes, I had a place to stay, and a job.

 **There you go everyone! I understand that the chapters recently haven't been as long as usual. This is because I'm currently working on a school project, but I would still like to release something for you guys. Also, I feel like this chapter ends pretty naturally here. Thank you all again for 2,000 views, I honestly can't stress this enough. Please review, favourite and follow! I hope you enjoyed this chapter; please tell me how I did! Bye!**


	18. A Duel?

**Sorry for not uploading on Monday, everyone, but I can now confirm that both projects that I was working on have now finished and as my school ends on Thursday, updates should start to become much more regular, as well as chapters getting longer. That said, enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.**

 **P.S: I was very hungry when I wrote this (you'll see). Also, my friends showed me a certain (food wars) anime, which kinda inspired this part.**

Steadying my breathing, I knocked on the door of Erza's house. The door was opened quickly; she had obviously been waiting for me.

"Lucy, what happened!?" she exclaimed, "You didn't sound so good on the phone, so -"

"Call the others round," I said, my voice still shaky, "I'll tell you all together,"

Fifteen minutes later, Levy, Juvia, Gray, Natsu and Gajeel had all arrived at Erza's house. We were all sitting together in the living room, all my friends looking at me expectantly. I sighed, looked down, and started to speak. I told them of how I had sneaked home and discovered my father with the letter. I told them of how we had fought, and how I had left the house. Finally, hardest of all, I told them of my mother's death, to give them some idea of what I had been talking about. It took all of my willpower not to burst into tears right there. Immediately, Natsu jumped up from his seat, a murderous look in his eyes.

"That, that monster! I'll beat him up!" Natsu vented, starting out the door.

"Cool your jets, flame-brain! The last thing Lucy needs is another death in the family!" Gray shouted across the room at Natsu.

"Argghh!" yelled Natsu, "You're right! And I hate it!"

Natsu sat down promptly, calming himself.

"Juvia is so sorry for what you had to go through," Juvia said sadly.

"Yeah, Lucy. We all understand what you're going through. If you need anything at all, remember, we are all here for you," Levy said, looking seriously at me.

"She can stay with me," announced Erza, "This house is too big for just me. Somehow, though, I don't feel like we'll be getting any visits from your father anytime soon,"

"Actually, Erza," I said, "I shouldn't need to stay with you for too long. If our work with Mr. Dreyar goes well, I should be able to rent an apartment. Also, I forgot to tell you, but, I accepted the contract,"

A cheer went up from my friends.

"And," I continued, "All we have to do is sign the letter in my backpack, and deliver it to Mr. Dreyar, and our job starts,"

The cheers grew louder and Levy patted me on the back.

"We're gonna' be so famous!" shouted Natsu, apparently over his fit of rage.

Slowly, the others started to filter out of the house, all needing to go back home. Soon it was just me and Erza left. She started by giving me a complete tour of her house.

"If you're going to be staying here, you might as well know your way around," she had said.

First, she showed me the kitchen, a spacious room, complete with all sorts of appliances. Next was the bedrooms, finishing with the bathrooms. As we were walking back to the kitchen, hoping to prepare some food, a thought struck me.

"What about the towers?" I voiced my question.

"Ahhh, I was hoping you wouldn't notice that," Erza sighed, "I guess it can't be helped. Come with me,"

She led me back into her bedroom and pressed her hand against a wooden panel near her bed. To my surprise, the whole wall swung around, leaving a small room with a ladder.

"Woah!" I exclaimed, shocked at this sudden development.

"After you," she smiled at me.

I cautiously stepped forward and started to climb the ladder, rung by rung. The room at the top was dimly lit and I scrambled up to the top. It was a fairly small room, and pretty unimpressive. The only thing of any value in there, was a grey safe, explaining the extra security. I slowly made my way back down and returned to the kitchen with Erza.

"Alright," I said, my curiosity satisfied, "I'll cook up some dinner. I'm a pretty good cook, if I do say so myself,"

"A challenger!" exclaimed Erza, incredulously, "This kitchen is mine!"

"You dare doubt my cooking skills?" I responded jokingly, not realising that Erza was being serious.

"I dare!" she responded, "There is only one way to settle this. A duel!"

"Make any meal you want, we will see whose is better!" she continued.

"Wait, no, Erza, I was jok -"

"Begin!"

Erza started rushing to the fridge, pulling to various ingredients and chucking them onto the counter.

 _I guess I should play along . . ._

I too, rushed to the fridge, deciding to make my Mom's favourite: spaghetti. The spaghetti was out of the cupboard, the ingredients for my sauce already ready. I started slicing the onions and tomatoes, leaving the spaghetti to cook as I worked. A little tomato pulp and garlic were added to the mix. Finally, I added some olive oil and left it to boil a little on the stove. As I waited, I watched Erza work. Knives flew between her hands, slicing and dicing tomatoes and salad. Her hands moving at supersonic speeds. I was so caught up in her display, I almost missed the timer for my food. I poured the sauce onto the spaghetti and added some parmesan. Finally, the intense cook-off/duel thing was finished.

I looked over at Erza's table, and she had managed to make some exquisite looking lasagne.

"Ta da!" she said, gesturing to her creation. Now, for the tasting.

 _I just wanted to eat dinner . . ._

I grabbed her bowl of lasagne and started to dig in. I had to say, it was really good. Before long, I had quickly polished the plate clean. I looked over to see what Erza thought of my dish.

Erza's eyes watered. She put down her fork.

"This. Is the best spaghetti I have ever tasted! The perfect combination of olive oil and, is that garlic? They just complement each other so well! The beautiful juxtaposition of the cheese next to the red sauce gives the whole dish a feeling of happiness. I - I - I'm sad to say, but I have been outdone. Hail Lucy, the new queen of the kitchen!" she said, bowing in front of me.

Jeez. Erza was a great friend of mine . . . but she really could chill out a bit more.

 **And there you have it, guys! Now a few things:**

 **We hit 20 reviews! To me, that is just crazy. Thank you to every single one of you - speaking of thank you's, here are some more!**

 **Thank you to:**

 **Animenerdd8**

 **Mavis Chase**

 **Phoenix X 2**

 **SnowLink2**

 **Yomi14**

 **authorshateus**

 **NeonPearl**

 **for your follows, favourites and kind words.**

 **2) As I mentioned previously, from Thursday onward, updates are going to be coming much more reliably and longer chapters. I also have another fic idea planned after this one, so if any of you may want to read that, stay tuned.**

 **3) Please review, favourite and follow, and I hope to see you all soon!**

 **P.S: If I've forgotten anything, please PM me. Thanks!**


	19. Go Team!

_**Hello everyone! I'm back with another (fairly short) update! You can expect another update tomorrow if I can. I'm extremely sorry for leaving you guys hanging, I've been busy with family stuff. I estimate that there should be another two chapters to this fic. :( I will start another one (don't worry) after a little break, as I have an idea that I'm working on. Sadly, I am going on a trip on Tuesday, so that week may be sparsely updated. Sorry about that. I should be able to write while I'm there, so when I get back, you should see another update (or two). Hope you enjoy this chapter!**_

Disclaimer: I donut own Fairy Tail (— Not a typo)

P.S: I am no longer hungry.

It had been two weeks since I had started staying at Erza's house. Now that school was out, Natsu, Erza and I spent all our time working on the first new edition of our manga. To introduce to the manga to readers, Mr. Dreyar wanted us to give him an extra long edition, including some of the work we had already done for the school magazine. However, we no longer needed to use our houses as art studios; Mr Dreyar owned one. I remembered back to when he first took us to see it.

 _ **FLASHBACK START . . . . . .**_

"Right this way," Mr Dreyar gestured, pointing through the doorway. I stepped inside, and looked around. My jaw dropped in amazement.

Three computers, side-by-side. The first computer, was not a computer at all. It was a drawing tablet, built into a computer, and fixed into the desk. That must have cost Mr Dreyar a good 3000£/€/$! The left side of the room was a large whiteboard, divided into squares, for storyboarding. There was even a camera positioned perfectly to capture an image of the whiteboard. Finally, another whiteboard at the back of the room contained all the details of every location, character, and enemy that had been revealed so far. Somebody had put a lot of effort into this. I did;t think it would have been Mr Dreyar though.

"Mr Dreyar -" I began.

"Call me Laxus," he interrupted.

"Laxus . . . who did all of this?" I asked.

"Actually, I was just about to get to that. I have hired you a research assistant / editor. I hope you don't mind," he said.

"No, no at all!" I said hurriedly, thrilled at the thought of having someone else that I could rely on, "So . . who is it?"

"It's me!" replied the woman herself, standing right behind me. I whirled around, hearing the familiar voice.

"Surprise!" said Lissanna Strauss.

 _ **FLASHBACK END . . . . . .**_

Since then on, Lissanna and I had become good friends. It surprised me to know that she wasn't actually too much older than me! I had been extremely pleased with the choice, and Lissanna was loving her work. Our first edition of manga was completely ready, Mr Dreyar was just reviewing it.

Then there was the matter of my father. I hadn't been back, since that day. And I never would. Selfish pig.

No money had been made so far from our endeavours, but Erza seemed to be comically rich and was paying for all my expenses. I told her that I would pay her back as soon as I could, but she wouldn't allow it. I hope that the people reading will enjoy our work. If they don't . . I honestly don't know what I'll do.

More importantly, though, my drawing has improved. A lot. I can now easily draw each character, the curvatures of the face and the shading second nature. Natsu and Erza no longer quarrel as much; they really get down to their work.

I couldn't have asked for a better team.

 _ **Thank you all for reading! Many thank you's go out to all of you who have reviewed, followed and favourited! I hope you continue to enjoy this story, all the way to its end. I hope to see you all in the next chapter!**_

 _ **P.S: I still can't shake the feeling that I'm forgetting something here.**_


	20. Sales Meeting!

**Hello everybody! I'm back! No, I didn't give up on you all, IKEA just had other plans for my time usage. (That bookshelf was much harder to assemble than it should have been). Just to say though, this is not the last chapter. There shall be a kinda epilogue like chapter, and then, it will end. :( However, I think I'll start a new story after a vacation break. I totally didn't just have one, or anything . . . .**

 **Enough said, enjoy!**

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail

P.S: Neonpearl, I like cheese. (Will this do?) (Disregard this the rest of you)

"Come in, come in," said Laxus, "We were just expecting you,"

I quickly opened the door and took a seat. Erza and Natsu followed me.

"This is Mr. Freed, and Mr. Bickslow. They are in charge of the sales within our company. As you may have already guessed, we are here to tall about the sales of your first edition. Over to you Mr. Freed,"

"So that's why they called us here," I thought to myself, praying that we had at least sold a reasonable amount.

"Well, first of all, I'd like to bid you all a warm welcome. Before revealing the exact figures, I'd like to say that we are all, very proud of you. I understand that you, Lucy, took a significant gamble to take up this job, and it seems to have definitely paid off. You have sold, the greatest amount of manga any other first edition has ever sold in our history. Congratulations!" Mr Freed rejoiced.

"We did it Luce! I told you we'd do well! It's obviously all due to my amazingness, but . . . " exclaimed Natsu.

"Amazingness! More like laziness!" I responded, choking on my own words, tears welling up in my eyes. It was all just too much for me to take in.

"She'll need a minute or two to recover," said Erza, and marched me out of the room.

"Take as long as you like; you deserve it!" Mr Bickslow shouted after us.

A few minutes later, the meeting was continued. I had calmed down now, and Mr Laxus wanted to talk about our next issue.

"Look, the fans, are already clamouring for another issue. They love the series, and we're just here to tell you that although it might be tempting: don't rush. The next issue should be release in a week or two, does that sound doable to you?"

"Of course sir!" replied Erza.

"Then, that is all," Laxus said.

That evening, my friends, Lissanna (who had now become part of our group) and I sat together at Erza's house, staring intently at a TV screen. I had my best friends surrounding me, my father no-where to be seen, and a life full of opportunities stretching before me. What more could anyone want?

Thank you all of you for seeing me through to the end of this story/fanfiction. Although there is an epiloguey thing to come, I feel like this is the end . . . kinda. Then again, if you all have anything at all you might want me to add in in the next chapter, don't hesitate to PM me. So . . . Bye!

 **P.S: Please review and the other stuff, if you want to or . . don't. I don't mind too much.**


	21. Goodbye Forever Yay!

**Okay guys, change of plans here. One of my reviewers, MavisChase suggested that I have Lucy meet with her father again. I was also toying with this idea, but now I've decided to bring it to fan fictionality. Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.**

"Dear, Lucy

Meet me at the house tomorrow at noon. This is your last chance.

Your Father", I read out.

"Your not seriously gonna' go?" asked Natsu incredulously, "You said you never wanted to see him again!"

"Of course I'm not gonna' go; why would I?" I responded.

"Actually, I have an idea," said Erza, "Lucy, most of your possessions are still at that house. Knowing your father, he probably won't have been bothered to move them. I know you could afford to buy new clothes an all that, but this would save a lot of time and money. Here's my idea: While you go and talk to your father, we'll sneak in behind you guys and collect up all your possessions,"

"I'm not sure . . ." I replied, pondering the idea.

"Lucy, don't you remember the last mission we undertook?" said Erza, going full military mode, "It was an absolute success! Ans so will this one. I will distribute the code-words at once!"

And with that, she marched up to her room, presumably to come up with the "code-words". Jeez. At least I wasn't part of the mission this time.

"I guess it's not robbery if I'm taking back what's mine . . . "

THE NEXT DAY . . . . . . . .

"Quick! Hide guys!" I hissed, trying to warn them that my father had heard my knocking. The five crouched behind a head, blending in "perfectly" with their ninja outfits that Natsu had insisted on.

"Ah, Lucy. I've been expecting you. Let's put an end to all this foolish behaviour, shall we? Follow me to the study," he said, no trace of emotion in his voice, only a triumphant smile.

"He must think that I've failed," I thought to myself, trying to contain my anger.

I followed him into the house, taking extra care to kick a door-stop into place. I gave a silent thumbs-up to my friends from behind my back, before continuing up the stairs.

We sat down at the large oak table, in the study. Luckily, the study was on the top floor, too far away for my father to notice the slight sounds my friends were making.

"Well, well, well. You've come crawling back, like the snivelling, useless toad you are. I told it would happen, didn't I. Didn't I?" he repeated, a touch of steel coming into his voice.

He was too caught up in his "victory" to notice the noises growing louder from downstairs.

"Yes. Yes you did," I forced out of my mouth, looking down, not in remorse, but trying to hide my seething rage.

"And whatever happened to that career of yours? I'm going to win! What happened to that? It failed. As I said it would,"

DOWNSTAIRS . . . . . . .

"Of course she needs her teddy bear! Teddy bears are an instrumental part of life!" yelled Natsu.

"No she doesn't!" retorted Gray, "They're stupid!"

"I agree with Gray-sama!" squealed Juvia in excitement.

"I don't even know why we even tried to be quiet," muttered Levy.

"You know what! Shut up!" roared Gajeel, "Let's just take the teddy bear and that's that! Now, if we've got everything, let's go,"

Muttering under their breaths like chastened little children, they left the room quietly. As they all exited the house, Erza gave the "all-clear" signal, knocking on the side of the house three times in rapid succession.

UPSTAIRS . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"As I said it would," sneered my "father"

Suddenly, I heard three knocks on the side of the house. The all clear signal! Enough of this pretence!

"Actually, I'm not here to apologise. I'm here to tell that I won. I took up that contract, and I've sold the most copies any first edition manga ever has! I have a home, and friends! More than that, I have a life of fun, and opportunities. Something you would never have let me do. I'm here to tell you that the last few weeks of my life have been the _best_ few weeks of my life. And really, I'm much happier than I ever could have been. So, no. You weren't right. I was. And now that I think you understand, I'm leaving for good," I thundered, watching his eyes grow further and further apart in shock. I ran out of the house, and away from my shell-shocked "father", no, he wasn't my father.

As I thought, my friends were there, waiting for me.

"Operation: Get-Lucy's-Clothes-And-Other-Possessions-And-Also-Rant-At-Her-Dad-A-Bit-Because-He's-Mean was a success!" saluted Erza.

"We even brought your teddy bear!" shouted Natsu, holding it up.

"Thanks guys," I replied, still calming myself down.

"What about your father?" asked Levy, "We heard you shouting but -"

"That man, is no longer our concern," I said, through gritted teeth.

"Glad to hear it," said Gray.

"So . . . what now?" asked Levy.

"Now? Now, we've got work to do,"

 **And there you have it! Another chapter! Don't worry though, there shall be another one! (At least one more) I hope you enjoyed reading! Thank you to all those who reviewed and followed+favourited. The next chapter will be . . . . some point in the future but until then . . Bye, I guess.**

 **P.S: Has anyone read any really good FT fan fictions lately, I'm dying to read something?**


	22. Drawing My Own Path Epilogue

So ….. how's it going, everyone. I'd like to say that I spent a year working on this last chapter. I didn't. To be honest, I've been completely caught up with school stuff - considering I was starting at a new school. That's not really a good excuse though, I really should have found the time to write something. That said, although it's much too late, here's the very final chapter/epilogue thing of my first ever fanfic. I hope you enjoy!

—

"Long Running Manga Fairy Tail Finally Comes to its Conclusion!" screamed the headlines,

"Final Issue of Fairy Tail Released!"

"Not bad, eh Natsu!" I chuckled, "We made headlines!"

"Told you we would Luce," he replied, smiling confidently, "There was no way we wouldn't!"

A lot had changed since we had set out with Fairy Tail. At first, it had been an art project, then my only hope to survive in adult life, and finally a pleasant journey - following the characters and story to its conclusion. Everyone had stuck with me the whole way, Erza, Levy, Gray, Gajeel and of course, Natsu. There had even been some new faces along the way - Erza's blue-haired boyfriend, Jellal, and many others. Week in, week out we received more and more letters and messages from fans as our following grew. We went on tours around Japan, Q and As, conventions and meet-ups. And throughout it all, we consistently received praise from the teachers back at school. It had really been an amazing journey, full of ups and downs, but in the end, it had all worked out.

"So Lucy," Natsu said, "Erza's messaging me about meeting up soon - for a celebratory lunch or something. We should probably get going - don't wanna' make her mad,"

"Sure," I replied, "Where is it?"

"What? Where? Oh I'm sure it's just a nice restaurant and totally not a big surprise party or anything like that - that'd be crazy?" he spat out, talking so quickly I could barely make out what he was trying to say.

"Natsu, are you sweating?" I asked him, holding back a smile.

"What? Me? Sweating? No?" he said frantically, wiping his forehead off, "Let's just go!"

And with that, he took off for the car.

"Honestly," I thought to myself, "He really hasn't changed since we started this journey has he?"

"Come on Luce!" he called from outside, snapping back to reality, "We gotta' go!"

—

"So, here we are!" Natsu said, pointing at the back of a familiar-looking building, "This is most definitely a fancy restaurant which we are totally going to have lunch in!"

"Sure.." I said, "But don't you think we should go in through the front door?"

"We could do that, but this seems better right? Don't you think? Right? Yeah, I thought so let's go this way," Natsu babbled, pointing me towards the back door.

"This is one odd restaurant," I thought to myself, "But I still feel like I've been here before,"

I walked towards the back door of the building and pulled on the doorknob. The door swung open and I entered what seemed like a big sports hall. The stands were all covered in a black cloth. I walked into the centre of the hall, looking to spot anyone who could explain what kind of restaurant this was. I turned around and began the ask Natsu about this place, but he was gone.

"Wait a moment," I muttered, "I've definitely been here before,"

Just as the realisation dawned on me, that this was the sports hall of my old school.

"SURPRISE!" yelled a crowd of dressed up students, leaping up from underneath the cloth covering the stands. As they shouted, the powerful lights were switched on, and people jumped out from all sorts of hiding places throughout the room.

Their shouts echoed around the room before my all my friends and managers from Kodansha ran in towards me.

"Lucy!" they shouted, wrapping me in a monster of a hug.

"Guys! You really didn't have to - thank you so much!" I exclaimed, tearing up and hugging them back.

"As soon as we saw the newspapers this morning, we knew we had to prepare a surprise for you. After all, we wouldn't be at these points in our lives without you. Without your courage and hard work on the initial project, none of this would have ever have happened. So thank you!" said Erza.

"It wasn't just me though! You guys were equally important - we did it as a team!"

"Well, then," said Erza, "Let's enjoy this celebration together!"

We spent the rest of the day milling around, talking to fans, each other and even our old teachers. I made sure to thank Ms Strauss specially - after all, if it hadn't been for her, we'd never have been able to get this far. When everyone had been thanked, and we had talked to all of our fans in the new students, we headed back to Erza's place. We stayed up for a while, watching movies, playing games and talking. After a while, everyone had fallen asleep, apart from Natsu and I.

"So, what now?" asked Natsu, drowsily.

"I guess we should probably get to bed," I replied.

'Not that, I meant - now that Fairy Tail is, over."

"You know what? I have no clue. Fairy Tail has been such a big part of my life since we started it. Now that it's gone, I'm not sure what I'm gonna' do with myself," I replied, "But as long as I've got you guys by my side? I'm sure it'll work out,"

—

Thank you all for reading this final chapter, and putting up with my terrible upload schedule. i really hope you all enjoyed my first fanfic, and please do leave a review telling me what you thought could have been done better. However, I do have another fanfic which I have started to write, also for FT, and the first chapter is already out. I've also written a lot of it already, so that I can attempt to have a fairly steady upload scheme with that. Thanks again for all your reviews, follows and favourites and I hope to seen you all in my next fanfic!


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